Rising Star
by jtav
Summary: As the Phantom Thieves prepare to take down Shido, Akira and Sae discover neither is who they thought they were. Romance blooms as Christmas Eve draws ever closer. Now with new epilogue.
1. Chapter 1

_November 21_

Sae entered the apartment to the unmistakable stench of burnt tuna. Makoto stood over the stove, looking pale and with dark circles under her eyes. Sae grimaced. Neither of them had slept last night, but Makoto was the one who had planned to fake Kurusu's death and been nearly decapitated by a Shadow. Sae's Shadow. "You shouldn't be cooking," she said in what she hoped was an authoritative tone. "Or anything else. At least try to rest."

Makoto started. "You're home!" She surveyed the ruins of her dinner attempt. "I'm sorry. I know things have been rough lately, but that's no excuse. I'll—"

"You're going to take a break." Sae stepped into the kitchen. Her nose wrinkled as the odor intensified. There had been a time when she would have brushed off Makoto's exhaustion, she thought with another wince. Treated dinner as something she was owed in exchange for paying the rent. How many times had Makoto cleansed a corrupted heart and rushed home to do chores while Sae chased after promotions without even noticing? No more. "I will take care of dinner."

"You're just as tired as I am, Sis." Makoto tensed. "Has anyone said anything about Akira at work? If anyone finds out what you did…"

 _We'll all be dead. Killed slowly, untraceably, and painfully._ "No one will find out." She put her hand on Makoto's shoulder. The movement still felt strange, like blocking for a play that she was still trying to learn. "I swear neither Shido nor anyone else will hurt you. He will pay for his crimes. After all you've done for me, it's the least I can do."

Makoto sucked in a breath. "You're going to bring him down. I know you will."

Sae's grip tightened as she sucked in a breath of her own. She wondered again what precisely she had done to deserve this and how she was going to repay the debt she owed, begin making up for all the mistakes of the past three years. She turned Makoto to face her. "We're going to bring them down. Together. The Phantom Thieves are going to need your brilliant strategies if we're to have any hope of success."

"Brilliant?" Makoto smiled, and, just for a moment, the exhaustion on her face fell away, and she was beaming.

Sae closed her eyes. What was it Kurusu had said yesterday? _"Yeah, going after Kaneshiro was stupid. But she did it for you. I think Makoto would have set herself on fire if it made you proud of her._ "You've always been the smart one in the family. And the brave one. I'm… proud of you." She cleared her throat. "But it doesn't do anybody any good if you run yourself ragged. I'm going to pick us both up some dinner, okay?"

"Can it be curry from Leblanc?" Makoto looked down. "Akira didn't look so good. I worry about him."

No, Kurusu hadn't looked good, even after the drugs had worn off. His face had been a mass of bruises and he had leaned heavily on Sae as they walked to and from the cab. Roughing up suspects in custody was something everyone knew the officers did, but they were usually careful to leave some plausible deniability. That they were willing to go beyond sleep deprivation or grabbing shirt collars showed just how desperate Shido was. Then again, Kurusu was supposed to have a bullet in his head and it wouldn't have mattered how the rest of the body looked. That was the level of corruption she had shut her eyes to. Accomplice after the fact. "I'll check on him, bring back dinner and a report. And then you and I are going to have a chat about how chores are divided around here. It's far past time I started doing things for you."

Makoto swallowed. "You really have changed," she said in a small, quiet voice. "I'm so proud of you."

Sae smiled and managed to make it out the door before she wiped her eyes.

She had never liked Yongenjaya—if it wasn't for Sakura's coffee being the best in the city, she would never come here. It wasn't the worst neighborhood in Tokyo, but the streets were too cramped, the paint on the houses too faded, symptoms of a rapidly decaying lower middle-class. The kind of people who would have latched onto Shido even without the Metaverse because he told them their problems were not their fault and the glory of thirty years ago could be reclaimed. Everything she had sworn that she and Makoto would never suffer.

The sign on the door of the café said "open" but Leblanc was nearly deserted and the ring of the bell seemed unnaturally loud to Sae's ears. There was no sign of Sakura. Sae relaxed. Sakura had thrown her out yesterday, but then she had been carrying the semiconscious body of someone who might as well be his son. She wouldn't blame him for hating her. Another person she would have to apologize to.

But the only person in the café was Kurusu. He sat with his back to her, scribbling furiously in a notebook and consulting an open textbook every few minutes. Sae started and looked out the door. Anyone could walk in, and they would find the Phantom here very much alive. She clenched and unclenched her fists. All her hard work—all Makoto's hard work—for nothing. She stepped around to the opposite side of the booth. "Kurusu?" she asked and mentally organized a lecture on proper witness protection protocol.

He looked at her, and the lecture died on her lips. Kurusu's skin was still mottled with bruises and half-healed cuts, but there was no trace of the-glassy-eyed stare of yesterday. His gray eyes were sharp and bright, even penetrating as a half-dozen emotions flittered across his face—irritation, shock, fear, before he gave her a small smile. "Ms. Niijima! I didn't think you'd show up again so soon." Back to worry. "Is everything okay? Akechi hasn't—"

"I haven't seen or spoken to him." She tried to smile. "I just wanted some curry, and Makoto's worried about you." _So am I._ "How are you holding up? "

"Better than most dead people. Tae—Dr. Takemi—says I should be fine in a day or two. I'm afraid it'll take a while for me to get my roguish good looks back." He laughed, but it turned into a coughing fit. "And my ribs feel like they've been split open."

Sae's jaw clenched, and something cold and sharp flowed beneath her skin. She would bring down Shido, but that wasn't enough. She wanted the interrogators who had done this, the bureau chiefs who had allowed it, the coroner so anxious to sign the death certificate that he hadn't even bothered to check the body, the whole rotten system that let a serial rapist get away with his crimes for years and beat the man who had done more to shine a light on corruption than most ever thought of doing. It wasn't…just. "Bastards," she muttered.

"I'm going to get better, don't you worry." His voice was low and dark and dangerous. "I have to. For Futaba and Haru and everyone else Shido has hurt."

Sae breathed in. Part of her job had been to profile this mysterious Phantom who was throwing Japan into chaos. Akira wasn't the monster she had constructed so she could feel better about discarding her ethics bit by bit, but noble wasn't the same thing as safe or tame. No one who could make yakuza bosses break down in tears was safe. His eyes darkened. No, tame was the last word she would have used it to describe Akira Kurusu.

But then he blinked. "Curry, you said? Sojiro had to pick up some stuff for Futaba, but he taught me all the recipes. I recommend it with apples."

He was going to cook for her? Now? "That's really not—"

"I've been laying around all day". He stood and shuffled toward the kitchen. "We are technically open and you are a customer. Apples?"

"Apples are fine." If he was this committed to his life as a Phantom Thief, then Shido's days were already numbered.

Pots clanged in the distance, and Sae sat. The notebook and textbook were open before her. She had never pictured Kurusu as the studious type, though his grades appeared to be excellent. Another thing she had gotten wrong about him. She read:

 _Giant pulses from energetic pulsars have been observed with S5 GHz = 10 kJy, but with durations of only ∼10 ns. The region from where a pulse of radiation originates must be no larger than the distance that light can travel during the duration of a pulse. If the pulsars are at a distance of 1 kpc, estimate the brightness temperature of these sources._

Sae frowned. She had been an excellent student in school, but her focus had been on the law, with only enough math and science that she could follow the forensic accountant's explanations of how a politician had managed to embezzle funds. And she didn't remember questions like these, certainly not in the second year of high school. She flipped to the cover of the textbook: _An Introduction to Radio Astronomy._ "You're an astronomer?"

More clanging and Kurusu all but dashed out of the kitchen bearing steaming hot curry. Sweat poured down his face "You read my problem sets?" he asked between gasps.

Sae took the curry. And put it on the table "I knew I shouldn't have let you do this. You're worse than Makoto. And you didn't answer my question. I wouldn't have taken you for the academic sort."

He put his hands in his pockets. His smile was a grimace. "Clashes with the bad boy Phantom Thief image too much for you, Prosecutor?"

Sae didn't answer right away. She had read Kurusu's file of cours —she hadn't been so oblivious a guardian that she hadn't noticed Makoto had a new group of friends She had been terrified a delinquent would ruin her sister's future. And then there had been yesterday, when everything she thought she had known about the world had been upended in a few hours. He had awakened some spark of idealism that Sae had thought snuffed out when her father had died. She knew the meek and mild boy who wore glasses he apparently didn't need was a lie and that the Phantom was a force for good, but none of that added up to knowing Akira Kurusu, Person. "I think my image of you has been as distorted as my heart." She tapped the problem. "This is too advanced for high school, isn't it?"

"Probably," he admitted and his flush deepened. "I grew up in a speck of a nothing town that didn't even have its own movie theater. Nothing to do except stargaze unless you wanted to get high." His voice was low again, but rhythmic, the sort of voice she had tried for when she needed the lay judges to hang on to her every word. "And space is so _big_ and there's so much we don't yet. Quasars and dark matter. We don't know why the sun's corona is so hot or the cause of the flyby anomaly. And I...I want to know and apparently I'm good at math and..." He took his hands out of his pockets and held them up, as if to shield himself. "I want to know."

No, she hadn't known Kurusu at all. And that seemed a horrible failure in a prosecutor. Perhaps more than that: she had waded in a mire of ambition and lies for so long that she hadn't recognized curiosity or nobility or any other virtue when it walked up and hit her in the nose. "That's very… admirable of you." No, that sounded condescending. "I owe you an apology, Mr. Kurusu. For harassing your guardian, and for everything I've done and said to you in both worlds. A young man brave enough to risk everything you have and still curious and smart enough to want to know how the world works. It's really quite remarkable."

"Thank you." His voice was soft, but there was a raw edge, and his smile held no trace of arrogance. "You're…remarkable too, Ms. Niijima."

Her? Remarkable in corruption, perhaps, if she could have a Palace alongside monsters like Kamoshida and Kaneshiro. "Wasn't I trying to kill you the day before yesterday?"

"And you saved my life yesterday. I think we're even. And, you know, you're the only Palace creator out of six whose heart I didn't have to steal." He cocked his head to one side. "Maybe both of our visions have been a little distorted. Maybe…maybe we should start over. Get to know each other. We are working together now after all."

Sae stared at him. She didn't remember the last time she had socialized for its own sake, rather than trying to ingratiate herself with her superiors. Simply talking had seemed unimportant when she had to put food on the table. As Makoto had become unimportant. And if she was going to change, and do something with the healed heart he had given her, she would have to make an effort. He had told her that his power came from his bonds with others. She didn't have his magic, would never have it, but maybe there would be a kind of power in learning to see the real Kurusu. And maybe she wanted to hear his voice change again as he talked about things she only half understood. "I always did like coming here for coffee. If Sojiro doesn't throw me out."

"He won't."

Last objection overturned. "Then, maybe you could start by reminding me what the flyby paradox is? My physics and astronomy are a little rusty."

He chuckled, a deep rich sound that made her skin tingle. "It would be my honor, Ms. Niijima." He bowed to her, and there was no trace of mockery.

Later, Sae returned home with mostly-hot curry. Makoto lay sprawled on the couch, snoring and with her limbs flying in all directions. Sae bit her lip. It was perhaps an injustice of its own that she was being given a second chance to repair the relationship with her sister. To learn how to be human again and to fight for what was right, no matter the odds, but it was a chance she intended to take. She bent to brush Makoto's forehead with her lips. "I love you," she whispered. The words still sounded awkward in her mouth, but they were easier when Makoto was asleep.

Makoto stirred. "Hmph. Sis?" She rubbed her eyes and sat up. "You got the curry? How long was I out? How's Akira?"

"He's fine." And somehow, when they found a way to bring Shido to justice, they would all be fine. In the meantime, she would try heal the wounds in her heart that had given birth to Leviathan. "What do you know about astrophysics?"


	2. Chapter 2

_November 23_

The only thing Akira didn't like about Tokyo was that a planetarium was the only place you could see the stars. He missed the wind in his hair and peering through a telescope in the backyard to look up at Beta Monocerotis. There were always the proper observatories, but somehow he doubted a high school delinquent would be allowed an appointment, no matter how smart he was. Another thing he would have to pay Shido back for—right after Haru and Futaba paid him back for having their parents murdered.

A supernova exploded on screen, like a special effect in a Featherman episode, all slow-motion and swelling music. Futaba leaned forward in her seat. "I thought this astronomy stuff was going to be pretty basic and boring, but this is pretty good."

Morgana poked his head out of Akira's bag. His blue eyes were wide. "All those stars out there. It's almost as strange a world as the Metaverse!"

Akira smiled despite himself. This shows always made him smile. The information was pretty basic—there hadn't been anything here that wouldn't have been covered by a first-year course at university, but only a heart of stone could be unmoved by Olympus Mons or Saturn's rings. And then, there were his friends' enraptured looks. For a few minutes they would love what he loved. Science wasn't some dusty collection of equations meant to be stored in a box and only brought out at conferences. It was like one of Yusuke's paintings, meant to be seen by the public at large. Someday if they survived, maybe he would consult on a show like this, kindle the spark in some other little boy.

They filed into the lobby, blinking against the fluorescent light. Akira turned his phone back on. There was a single text from Makoto: _No change_. He tensed. If they didn't find the keyword for Shido's Palace soon, he was going to end up Prime Minister and then it would be too late to stop him. They had spent most of yesterday shouting out possibilities and had only headaches and sore throats for their trouble. Futaba had finally decided that a visit to the planetarium was a hitherto unknown item on her promise list and asked him to take her. It was really something when the former shut in felt sorry for him for being cooped up.

There was a poster on the wall: _All New Show This Winter! Dark Matter: Fact, Fiction, and Frontiers. Beginning this Christmas Eve._

Futaba read. "Dark matter? It sounds like a shooter. Or psience. Maybe I could go? Or we could go?" She frowned. "It will probably be really crowded, but I feel like I've gained a lot of XP lately. "

He and Morgana looked at each other and Akira felt a lump in his throat. It was one thing to use the Phantom Thieves to force confessions and punish the wicked, but Futaba had been something else entirely. Removing the distortions hadn't broken her, like he had broken his previous targets but had set free the chains on her heart and allowed her to not only rejoin the human race but become a hero. Back when he had gone to Mass, the priest had told him that it was better to create good than to vanquish evil. And if some evils simply needed vanquishing, the fact remained that the only two jobs where the goal hadn't been retribution were the only ones that had given him anything: a family and his life.

"No, wait," Futaba continued. "Christmas Eve is a boyfriend-girlfriend thing, right? Definitely not ready for that yet. Maybe ever." She reached into Akira's bag and squeezed Morgana's cheeks. "We can all mourn the fact that we made charisma our dump stat together."

"Dump stat?" Morgana hissed. What's a—I am simply constant in my affections for Lady Ann. Also, I am a rather unique individual. If you want to make fun of someone, make fun of this guy."

"You are a true friend, Morgana," Akira muttered. "Worried about me being single when we have people trying to kill us."

"Who said anything about worried? I was making fun of you."

There were moments—just moments—when he wanted to find the deepest part of Mementos and toss his friends in there. "I had a girlfriend. She dumped me when I got a record." That had stung more than it should have. He and Maiko hadn't even been dating that long, but had already been reduced to writing her name in notebooks. But after, well, nobody had wanted him around, not even his mother. His probation had been meant as more than probation; it was an exile. He had made it more than that, but the pain was an achy scar. If he was going to go crazy over someone, it would be for someone who knew what he was and what that meant. And someone he knew and could admire as much as he drooled over her. "When I want a girlfriend, I'll get one."

Futaba blinked. Even Morgana looked shocked. "I'm sorry."

Akira's face burned. He never knew quite what to do with sympathy, and they needed Joker who was always confident and charming and was never lonely or hurt. "Let's get out of here before you two hatch a plan or something."

But still, he wondered as he put his hood up and rode the train home. Would it really be so bad to have someone? He had the Thieves, but they all belonged to each other. To have someone just for him, to steal a kiss, stroke her hair... Akira raised his eyes. _I know that you and I aren't on the best of terms right now, but I haven't asked for anything doing all this. Maybe, please, could you give me someone? Or give me to someone? I just want…a partner._

Yongenjaya was beautiful at sunset, the light transforming the streets and buildings from gray to orange, purple, and gold. Not the most elegant neighborhood in the city, but there was life here in the people talking excitedly and even in the secondhand shop where he could turn garbage into infiltration tools.

"Aren't you proud of me?" a man was telling a woman who might've been his wife as they carried bags from the grocery store. "I'm going to do my civic duty and vote. Don't know why they're bothering with an election, though. Shido's got this!"

Akira ground his teeth. _Don't say anything. You can't afford to draw attention to yourself. You're supposed to be dead._

"I know. He just seems so honest and charismatic and wonderful."

Futaba went rigid. Her eyes glittered, and tension thrummed through her as she shivered. Fighting between fury and terror. Akira stepped forward. The Phantom Thieves acted for others, Joker most of all. If Futaba couldn't confront these idiots who defended her mother's murderer, then he would have to. "Shido isn't wonderful."

The man stared at them. "How can you said that? Shido isn't like all those other politicians. He's trustworthy! He's going to make this a strong country again! Bring back the jobs! Clean up this dump of a neighborhood."

"Or he's just another adult making promises he can't keep. Yongenjaya isn't a dump. We have the best doctor in the country right around the corner. The best coffee and curry. If there's something you don't like, work to fix it instead of depending on somebody who will give you nothing but campaign slogans."

"You kids don't understand how hard it is out there."

 _Don't know how I'm going to get a job. Any decent university will probably blacklist me. The world keeps trying to kick me in the face because of forces far beyond my control. Is that what you're thinking? Because I understand that perfectly._ "Nobody can save you but you."

For a moment, it seemed like Akira might've gotten through. The woman's mouth was half open and she made little noises at the back of her throat. But she shook her head. "It's just so hard," she said and walked away.

Akira took a deep, steadying breath. He'd never cared about politics before he came to Tokyo, but it was weird how much in love with Shido everyone seemed to be. Even if they didn't know about the murders or any of the rest of it, they were treating him like some kind of cult leader. Just like they had worshiped the Phantom Thieves before Okumura's death.

"That was quite the speech," said Sae from behind him. "Are you sure you're a budding scientist instead of a budding politician?"

He turned. Sae was different. She wore the same severe business suit and understated silver necklace and earrings. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms. But her posture was looser, and her skin was brighter than he remembered. Her eyes sparked too, red embers amid a sea of brown.. A woman who lost none of her steel, but had been gentle with him the other night when she had found his problem sets. Was that what happened when you found the strength to change your own heart? Kamoshida had been a broken shell of a man. But Sae stood on the sidewalk as if she were the rightful ruler and everyone else walked there on her sufferance. He had barely thought of her before Akechi had demanded they steal her heart and Makoto had come up with her brilliant gamble. Sae had been an obstacle, someone who threatened people he cared about or broke their hearts, but really just another problem in search of a solution. Nothing to him.

Except now he couldn't stop staring.

Sae frowned. "You should be more careful."

Akira forced himself to blink. Now wasn't the time for his brain to be checking out over…whatever it was that had just happened. "I know." He glanced at Futaba, who had a smile on her face that he didn't like one little bit. "But we have to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves."

"But before that, you have to survive to take down Shido." Sae scowled but twisted her fingers the same way Makoto did when she was nervous. "Where are the others? I need to speak with you about something."

"At the Diet Building doing you-know-what. Should be back any minute. Want a cup of coffee while we wait?" Tension crept along his back. He knew Sae was capable of losing her temper and that her Shadow was easily frustrated, but seeing her anxious unnerved him. If the most powerful ally they had was already unsettled, then he needed to move that much faster.

"Decaf. I do not need something to make me more excitable right now."

"Done." They hurried inside, Futaba taking a booth and Sae perching at the bar while Akira busied himself with the coffee. His thoughts bounced around like ping-pong balls. Had Shido and Akechi already discovered that he was alive? Unlikely since Sae was alive and unharmed. Maybe there had been some new development that meant he wouldn't have to wait until the election to take power? He needed to recover now, find my last missing keyword now. Sae had shone like the sun. Why was he even thinking about that?

There was no trace of that light when he returned with coffee. Her brow was furrowed, her fingers laced together. Akira frowned. Makoto had hoped that they could help Sae rediscover her sense of justice instead of just chasing after promotions, and as far as he could tell after two days, she had changed herself spectacularly. But they had given her burdens even as they had taken others away. She knew there was a knife at her throat, now, because of him. She was fighting the most powerful man in Japan, because of him. "On the house," he said.

"Kurusu?"

"Consider it the you-saved-the-barista's-life coupon." When she didn't move he added, "Come on, Ms. Niijima. You look like a woman in desperate need of a free drink."

"I never get free coffee," Morgana muttered from atop the stove. "And why were you looking at her so strangely earlier?"

"I will pay you back for this," she said as she took the coffee. But some lines smoothed from her face as she said it and Akira decided he had done the right thing.

But Morgana's stare intensified as he looked from Akira to Sae. "You look at her like—"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the bell tinkled and five Phantom Thieves trooped into the store. Akira's shoulders slumped. Ryuji was red-faced, and Ann's eyes were hard and Makoto had the same frown she'd had when she had only placed in the top ten on her exams. Another fruitless day.

"Damn it! What's it going to take for us to get this guy? Futaba and Niijima were not nearly this hard." Ryuji started as he surveyed the café. "Um, hi Futaba. Hi Ms. Niijima."

Sae gave him a tight smile.

But Makoto strode across the room and seized her sister in an embrace that made Akira's stomach clench. If he had done nothing else as the Phantom, he had healed some of the wounds between those two and given the Niijimas what he would never have again: a family that loved and was proud of each other. "Sis? You're here early! Did something happen at work? Are you all right?"

Sae brought her hands up around Makoto's shoulders for a stiff squeeze. "I'm fine." Her gaze took them all in, and her voice became once more that of the iron-hearted prosecutor. "My director was found dead at his desk today. The official cause of death is a stroke."

"I know you didn't like him, and I will never forgive him for threatening to fire you, but—" Makoto's eyes widened as recognition dawned on her face. "You think it was a mental shutdown?"

Sae nodded. "I can't prove it. He was on the verge of retirement, and the Ministry of Justice loses a few people a year to overwork, but the timing is suspicious, and he was very insistent that the Phantom Thieves case be solved before the election. And his politics do line up with Shido's nationalism."

Akira rubbed his temples. He had never met the man, but everything Sae and Makoto had told him about the Special Investigations director suggested he was a nasty piece of work who would have framed his own grandmother if it suited him. "So you think he was in on Shido's conspiracy, and Shido had him killed to cover his tracks." His stomach clenched again, from fear instead of wistfulness. "If he's killing people who might know something about the mental shutdowns, then you're next." He seized the counter. No. Akechi couldn't kill Sae. Not when Akira had been able to convince her to change her own heart. Not when he had seen her curious and kind and regal and magnificent.

"As far as he knows, I never was able to get anything out of you before you killed yourself, remember?" Her face softened. "I was more worried about all of you. Akechi knows who you are. It's only a matter of time before Shido moves against you." Her gaze went from Akira to Makoto and back. "And I can't—I won't—allow that to happen."

"We won't, either. Ideas, anyone?"

Akira took a deep, calming breath. Yes, they needed ideas not nightmares of what would happen if they failed. "Well, Kamoshida was dumb luck, most of the rest were deductive reasoning but one time..." He looked at Futaba. "We had to ask you what your room was to you. If only there was a way we could ask Shido what the Diet Building was to him.

"Yeah, walking right up to Shido wouldn't be suspicious at all," Ann said. "And we already tried asking other MPs about him."

"Maybe we were asking the wrong politicians. Torasuke Yoshida got his start in politics around the same time Shido did, he's a friend of mine, and he knows all about the Phantom Thieves. He's having a rally in the square by Shibuya Station tonight. We'll go ask him."

Sae went very still. "Maybe there's a way that you can ask Shido himself. All his speeches would be a matter of public record. Comb through them and see if there are any common images."

Ryuji snorted. "Leave it to Makoto's sister to come up with a plan that involves a lot of reading." His grin was crooked and bright. "We're going to go out there and talk to Yoshida, right bro?"

Yusuke spoke for the first time. "Are you sure that's wise? He has been out and about today already, and there will be some media scrutiny over this rally. The last thing we want is for him to be visible on the news, even with his face covered."

"And he's very opinionated about politics." Sae's lips curved upward into a small smile. "Not that I blame him, considering. He and I can go through the speeches on our phones." Her smile grew bigger. "Unless our future scientist suddenly objects to doing data analysis?"

Akira knew he was being baited. He also knew that she was trying, in her own awkward way, to protect him. "I bet I can find something interesting before you can, Prosecutor."

"Wouldn't it be faster to have Futaba write a program to analyze the speeches?" Morgana asked. "She wrote a program for everything else, after all."

But Futaba was giving him the same look that she had on the street. "Nope. Programming is totally exhausting, and I'm all tapped out for the day. We'll let Akira and Niijima do the boring analysis stuff for once. Come on, kitty, it'll be fun."

And with one last look from Makoto, they were out the door again, leaving him and Sae alone. Akira took a moment to study her. Some of the blazing fire that had left him speechless had faded, and she looked more like the tired, harried prosecutor that had come in the shop to threaten Sojiro. "Are you okay?"

"I have to be. I chose to stand with you the moment I decided to help you fake your death." She sighed. "I can't believe you and Makoto have been doing this for the last six months. It's been three days and I'm already exhausted. "

"It didn't start out like this. Yeah, we're defenders of justice, but it was also a game. We were LARP-ing being phantom thieves. I mean, it was only four or five days a month, and you guys didn't really start getting close until last month." And it had been such a rush to know that he finally had the power to see justice done, that Kamoshida would pay in a way that unknown molester never would. He had been an avenging angel. And then he had seen the blood pouring from Kookaburra's eyes and known that this was no game. "I meant what I said. We'll all keep each other safe. That goes for you too. Nobody said this justice stuff was easy, but at least we aren't fighting alone."

"Against a vast, immeasurably wealthy conspiracy that can kill people almost with a thought."

"That's less than a month away from controlling the country and then doing who knows what else." He sighed. "I'm tired too. I just want to go back to doing my problem sets."

"That's good. My father…my father always said that it was important to remember why you were fighting." Her gaze turned far away and Akira wondered if she was seeing the car speeding towards her father. "I looked up the problem you were working on. That's second-year university astronomy."

He blushed. Sae's curiosity had been a pleasant surprise, but Akira had assumed it was superficial, an olive branch as they shifted from enemies to allies. That she might actually be interested... "Mom always told me I should push myself, not just stick with what was in the textbook. At least that's what she said before all this happened." His face darkened at the memory. He had been a good kid, tried his best to help her out after dad walked out. Gone to Mass every week even with the whispers of the shocking scandal of the divorce lingering in the air. And even then, she hadn't believed him when he'd said he had been trying to stop a rape. "I wonder if anyone would even take me now."

"Your grades are excellent. And if that's typical of what you can do, you should excel at the entrance exam. You could get in to University of Tokyo if you wanted."

Akira's throat burned and his vision wavered. Sae couldn't know. She couldn't. He had dreamed of the University of Tokyo, once upon a time. Not just because entry to one of the imperial universities was his ticket out of a dying town, but because it was the best. Prove that he was as good an astronomer as he thought he was. And then he had heard screams in the darkness and his future was smashed to pieces. "People like me don't go to imperial universities."

"You mean your record? It's supposed to be sealed once your probation is complete." But her voice was professional and perfunctory, giving the half-truth she had been taught in law school.

"People talk. Reputation, letters of recommendation are everything. Even before I became a Thief I was getting pieces of chalk thrown at me. Every time I so much as got a question right people were so shocked. Because I was a delinquent." His fingers curled around a coffee cup. "I have a little money, but that guy ruined my future."

"Because you did the right thing." Sae stared into her own cup. "Justice really isn't easy, is it? We love stories about good triumphing over evil, but the truth is that you're more likely to end up broken and bleeding on the pavement having accomplished absolutely nothing." Her lips set into a line, and for a moment he could see echoes of her Shadow. But then she snapped her fingers, and there was an energy and fire that Leviathan had never possessed. "I'll just have to write you a recommendation letter myself."

"What?" He understood the words but they made no sense. "What?"

"Your character is what's at issue. Who's a more trusted judge of character than the public prosecutor?"

His mouth felt dry and the burning intensified. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course I would. I told you that I hate being in debt to you." Her hand shifted ever so slightly until it was brushing his own. Sae had touched him before, trying to shake him from his drug-induced stupor, but he had been in no condition to notice that her skin was soft and warm or that her fingers were almost indecently long. Slowly, as if she were a wild animal approaching food, she rested her hand over his. "You made my world so much bigger in just a few days. It's only right that I do the same for you. If the world really was just, you could sue all those teachers for defamation. You're a good person, and I don't say that about very many people."

Akira swallowed. He had been called handsome, smart, even talented, but never good. He looked down at their hands. He really ought to move; this was almost unforgivable intimacy. But he didn't.

Finally, her hand slipped from his and she exhaled. "Speeches," she breathed as she took out her phone.

And so, Akira tried to put his mind back in order and return from the world where Sae Niijima of all people had the power to make him crazy.

Thirty minutes later, he decided that crazy might have been an improvement. "'We shall set sail upon a bright future together. For too long, you have been ground beneath the heel of other nations. Our young have no hope, and some will tell you that our glory is a distant memory. But this doesn't have to be. We can be a great country, a strong country!'" He rubbed his temples. "People actually fall for this? He doesn't actually say anything. No plans, no policy. Just words."

It was creepy, the way people seemed to fall for stuff with no substance and move from person to person looking for a savior. One minute, they hated the Phantom Thieves, the next they loved them when nothing had really changed. "It's like people stopped thinking for themselves." A thought, sudden and irrational and terrifying. "You don't think he's using the Metaverse to control people?"

"You're the expert in that world, not me. I hope not. Too many people swallow dreams of national glory and lashing out at the weak even without mind control."

He supposed that was true, even if he only knew of their totalitarian past through black-and-white photos in history books and plaques commemorating the war dead. Kamoshida and Kaneshiro had been monsters long before the Palaces and the rampages and the mental shutdowns; the only thing that had changed was that he had the power to deal with them. "I'm seeing a lot of motion imagery. Some kind of vehicle?"

"As good a guess as—"

Loudspeaker feedback whined from somewhere nearby. "I humbly ask that you vote for me, Masayoshi Shido!"

Akira's head snapped up. "He's here? You've got to be kidding me!" He looked out the window. People thronged at the end of the street as photographers snapped pictures. In the distance, Shido stood clutching a microphone, his posture more befitting the Emperor than a man of the people. Sae said something, but Akira didn't hear her. He was out the door and joining the throng in the moment. Men, women, children who weren't even supposed to be involved at all in politics pressed around him, some of them wearing black and red shirts with Shido's face on the front.

"Let us set sail to a better tomorrow."

Again with the "setting sail..."

"Some people say we're stuck like this." Akira recognized the voice of the young man he had spoken to earlier.

Shido heard him, and his laugh was like what Akira imagined an alien would sound like if he had read about laughter in books but never done it himself. "There's a name for people like that: self-entitled brats!"

 _Damn brat, I'll sue!_

The ground shifted from beneath Akira. That was where he had heard Shido's voice before. He was the man Akira had pulled off that woman nearly a year ago. The man who had ruined his life. His thoughts were replaced by white-hot pulses. _Make him pay. He deserves it. Kill him. Tear him to pieces._

An iron grip on his shoulders. Sae. "Kurusu?"

He focused on her grip with all his strength, trying to force himself back into rational thought. "Take me back inside before I do something I regret." His breath was harsh pants.

Sae stiffened behind him but did as he asked, and they threaded through the crowds as if they did it every day. The smell of the coffee assaulted his nostrils, reminding him that he was in a world where Phantom Thieves did not kill and mindless vengeance could cost you everything. "He's the one," Akira croaked. "The man who got me put on probation."

Sae's eyes were wide. "You're certain?"

"I thought for a long time that his voice sounded familiar, but now I know." A tremor seized him. Something hot and wet was on his cheeks. "He's the man who took my future from me!"

The tremors were worse, and he was dimly aware of Sae's arms coming around him, as unfamiliar to hugging as Shido was to laughter. It didn't matter. Someone knew what had been done to him and cared enough to comfort him. "None of that. You're the Phantom. If he steals, then you steal it back from him ten times over." Her hands glided down his arms. "I promise you that you'll get your future back. But you have to think.

Think. He was a scientist. Not a ball of emotion. And he knew something about Shido that Shido had been desperate to have forgotten. Because after all, only men like him were fit to "steer this country."

Steer this country. Set sail. "I know what his Palace is." He took out his phone with a trembling hand. "Masayoshi Shido, National Diet Building. Ship."

The world wavered around him and he felt a little lightheaded. "Destination found."

Akira exited the app and squeezed Sae's hand. "Call the others tell them we found the bastard. The Phantom Thieves' greatest heist starts now."

* * *

 _Thanks to my heroic, overworked beta for this chapter coming so fast. Future chapters won't be *quite* this quick, since I'm doing pass edits and writing at the same time. Just finished chapter 12 and am trying to keep a good lead._


	3. Chapter 3

_November 24_

 _It has been my privilege and my honor to observe Mr. Kurusu during his year in Tokyo. I am confident he would be an asset to any university which chose to admit him._

Sae frowned and backspaced. Much too generic, but what could she say? _Mr. Kurusu was innocent to begin with, but I can't actually get his conviction overturned. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have degenerated into forging evidence. Oh, and he and his friends are the only thing standing between Japan and a totalitarian dictator._

"Sae, may I speak to you?" asked a soft voice that made Sae's blood run cold.

She raised her head, very slowly and deliberately. Akechi stood before her, wearing the same half-smile that she once would have called a mixture of concern and condescension. Now she knew better. She had never been anything more than a pawn to him or his master. And somewhere in his coat was the pistol he would have used to kill Kurusu. Sae kept her breathing even. Makoto, Kurusu, everything depended on not showing any fear or any sign that she believed him to be anything other than the new Detective Prince. "Yes, Akechi?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you are well. It has been a trying few days."

 _Making sure that my heart was stolen as planned?_ Before he had trained his sights on the yakuza who had assassinated him, her dad had been tasked with taking down con artists of all kinds. And he had passed one important bit of wisdom on to Sae: deceiving someone was a matter of figuring out what they expected and giving them that. Akechi expected to see the person she would be if her heart had been taken by force. So who was that? Madarame and Kaneshiro had been physically ill even when they had come to the police station to confess. And they had been obsessed, almost, begging and pleading to be punished for their sins. And after, according to the correctional officers, they had seemed almost happy to be in prison, neither causing trouble nor making any effort at rehabilitation.

"I haven't been feeling well. Lightheaded, headaches, nausea." She added a slight crack to her voice. "I think I've been working too hard. After the new year, I think I'll take some time off." _Bow head slightly, blink._ "I've been terrible to Makoto. And to you, suspecting you of hacking my laptop. You! The Detective Prince! Can you ever forgive me?"

Akechi fidgeted and flushed, and for a moment his discomfort seemed almost genuine, as if he wasn't accustomed to apologies. "There, there. You were under a great deal of pressure. It's only natural that you would lash out." His voice dropped. "Just between you and me, while I'm of course horrified by his sudden death, I'm not sorry that you won't have to deal with your former director anymore. A heart like yours shouldn't be corrupted by someone like him."

And for a moment, she could almost believe that he meant it. Did Akechi find a reason to hate all his targets to make it easier to kill them? "The corruption is mine. But I swear I'll spend the rest of my days focusing on what's truly important."

"You might want to start quickly. These Phantom Thieves are scattered with their leader's death, but they aren't gone. And they did cause some vile rumors to swirl around your sister. Take her on vacation for a while. At least until after the election." He flinched. "You don't know how lucky you are to have someone that loves you. And now that you don't have a Pal—well, I just want you to be safe."

Something twisted inside her. Was this some kind of perverse affection? As far as Akechi knew, her Shadow had gone to wherever those without distorted desires went. And a prosecutor without drive and ambition was no threat to Shido or anyone else. Someone who didn't need to be murdered. And Persona-users had no Shadow to slay. Akechi was trying to remove those he had worked with from the gameboard, apparently without Shido's knowledge. "I'll be finished as soon as I can."

"Well then, good day to you." He bowed and was gone.

If only, Sae thought, she knew what had drawn Akechi to Shido in the first place. How to pull on that twisted thread of honor to make him tell the world that the mental shutdowns and rampages had been murders and that Shido was behind them. Without some kind of proof of the supernatural, the murder case against Shido would be almost impossible to make. At least not without hurting someone who didn't deserve it.

She was the first one home, naturally. Kurusu had told her they would begin their infiltration today. Preliminary reconnaissance, he had called it, making fighting three-headed dogs or who-knew-what-else sound so normal. The seconds ticked by. Makoto was fine. Kurusu was fine. They had been fine for all the months Sae had been entirely ignorant of the Metaverse. She just had to stop worrying.

That was when she saw the bug. Gray, no larger than a one-yen coin, resting on the wall opposite the table where she usually worked and easily mistaken for a nail unless you knew what to look for. PSIA used equipment like this. Sae stiffened. She was being removed from the gameboard, but not they hadn't stopped watching, oh no. She wondered if this had been part of Akechi's plan too. If she wanted to bring down Shido, she couldn't assemble the evidence at the office. And now she couldn't work here either.

The conspiracy was watching every move she made. Sae closed her eyes. _Is this how you felt, Dad? Hunted on all sides until the day they came for you?_ What had she gotten herself into? A week ago she had been on track to close the biggest case of her career and now she was under surveillance. She was going to be just like her dad, murdered for nothing while the real villains simply laughed. A weak, helpless girl battling against supernatural forces.

Enough. A week ago, she had been days from taking the fall for the Phantom Thieves. A week ago, she had been on the brink of forging evidence to convict someone—anyone—because winning was all that mattered. She had nearly murdered her own sister in that other world. Whatever Shido and Akechi wanted to do to her, they could not turn her back into that monster. Justice wasn't easy, but it was the only choice.

She threw together some udon and made a show of straightening up the living room before heading to Leblanc. Sae ignored the "closed" sign and marched inside. Instead of the full complement of Phantom Thieves she had hoped to find, there was only Sojiro Sakura and Morgana. Sae tensed. For all Kurusu's assurances of forgiveness, this was the closest she had been to alone with Sakura since she had threatened him. "I'm guessing from the cat that the others returned. Where are they?"

"They normally go their separate ways after they do whatever it is they do. Akira's upstairs. Completely exhausted, poor kid." His voice was gruff, but no more than it had been this spring. "I try not to know too much. That way I can't betray them. And I stay out of the mess that swallowed Wakaba." His gaze hardened as he wiped the counter. "Of course, sometimes it comes for me and Futaba anyway."

Sae inhaled. She should have said this a long time ago. "I apologize for threatening both of you. You're a far better guardian than I ever was, and I hope I can eventually prove to you that I have every intention of helping these kids in whatever way I can."

He was silent for a moment. "You're on their side? No danger of turning them in for a promotion or something like that?"

"Never."

"Then it's all forgiven." He gave her a grimace that was probably supposed to be something like a smile. "I'm not going to pretend that you weren't a jackass this summer, but you saved Akira's life, and the only thing that matters to me more than that kid is Futaba. And something you said to him really got him fired up. Told me he had been talking to you about that astronomy stuff that I don't even half understand and asked me if I thought he could go to an imperial university. What did you do to him?"

"I told him the truth. He's brilliant, and if we managed to survive this, he's going to have a brilliant future." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to let Shido or this rotting system that cares more about victories than people have the last word. If justice means anything in this world, we'll be talking about Dr. Kurusu ten years from now."

Another grimace. "You two really made an impression on each other, huh?"

She shrugged. "I'm not accustomed to being saved or being in debt." Or to having her preconceptions so thoroughly shattered. "Tell him to be very careful. I'm being monitored. I don't know where I'll be able to do work on Shido's case now."

"Here of course," said a tired voice from the top of the stairs. "Futaba's been fooling their bugs for months."

Kurusu trudged down the stairs, looking tired but uninjured. He wasn't wearing his glasses again, and his hair fell almost but not quite in front of his face. It made him look vaguely roguish but also adorably rumpled: Phantom Thief and professor all in one.

"You shouldn't be up," Sakura said as Morgana meowed.

Kurusu waved them both away. "I heard the bell. And all I did was some poking around. You could barely call in an infiltration." His face softened. "I was afraid they might bug you. Futaba's been having to run interference for months."

"You can beat FISA-grade surveillance?" It occurred to Sae, again, that the Phantom Thieves were children and not at the same time. Freedom fighters who could have sent her into a coma or made the act she had given Akechi real any time they wanted. Power beyond power. "You kids scare me."

"Honorable public prosecutors are perfectly safe. And I told you: you're one of us. I don't like being saved or being in debt either." He held out his hand. "May I see your phone?"

"Pardon?"

"If they are bugging your apartment, they probably got a wiretap on your phone too. Futaba came up with a countermeasure, just in case." There was something soft, almost vulnerable in his voice. "Please, you saved my life. Let me protect you the best way I can."

She thought suddenly, strangely, of Akechi. One of them thought to be a hero and was actually a murderer. The other thought to be a murderer and actually a hero. Both of them trying in their own way to save her. It wasn't a thing Sae was used to, being saved. She had had foolish, romantic dreams of warriors on blazing steeds rushing in to save the day—she supposed every child did. That was before she understood that the "saving" meant that she was expected to sit down and shut up and never have a thought in her head beyond popping out some salaryman's children and cooking his dinner. But still, you could wish for princes and heroes with messy hair who were too smart for their own good.

She handed Akira her phone, and his fingers brushed against hers. An entirely innocent touch that should've been nothing after all the times she'd seized his shoulders keep him from passing out or holding him when grief and rage brought tears to his eyes. But electricity arced between them, shocking her. Sae bit back a gasp. Just a bit of harmless static, that was all. But Kurusu colored and Sae felt her face grow hot as Sakura raised an eyebrow.

Kurusu tapped the screen. "There."

Sakura looked between them. "I'm going to buy some groceries. Fill free to help yourself to more coffee. Consider it a peace offering, if I'm going to be turned into a second prosecutors office." But as the bell jangled over the door, Sae thought she heard the unmistakable sound of whistling.

"I ran into Akechi," Sae said as she put away her phone. Even psychic assassins were a safer topic of discussion than whatever that was that had just happened. "I had to pretend my heart was stolen. I think he bought it. He warned me to keep Makoto very far away until the election."

"Did he?" Kurusu's eyes darkened as Morgana meowed. "What? If he really liked us, he wouldn't be working with Shido to try to kill us. He'll slit Ms. Niijima or anyone else's throat if they get in his way." His gaze flickered back to Sae. "Be really careful around him, and not just because he can enter the Metaverse. I knew he was lying to me about when he got his Persona, and I knew he was going to betray us to the police, but I wanted to think he was just an overzealous cop who was trying to do the right thing. Makoto warned me, but I still almost puked when I heard that recording."

"You see the best in people."

"No, it's…how much do you know about my life before the arrest?"

More than she probably should have before he became a formal suspect in the investigation, but she had been willing to do anything to safeguard Makoto's future. "I know that you came from a very small town, that your mother divorced your father on grounds of adultery when you were nine, that your family is Christian, and that you scored at or near the top of your class before coming to Tokyo, and that you were in the science club."

"Trust a Niijima to focus on my school work." He smiled, but without warmth. "I never fit in, and after the arrest, well, I don't know if you can disown a minor, but Mom did the next best thing. I'm a 'useless disgrace' according to her. Didn't matter how many awards and honors I'd won before. She didn't believe me and she didn't want me around. I was tainted." He sat on a stool. "And it turns out nobody wanted Akechi either. He told me that he was a bastard and that his mother committed suicide. I mean, as bad as I had it, I was never stuck in the system. So here was someone like me, worse than me, who was a perfect little prince. And I...I was so desperate to have a friend like that that I made myself believe the lie."

Sae stared as Morgana jumped from the counter to nuzzle Akira's legs. She really ought to say something. _Your mother is unbelievably cruel. I was unbelievably cruel. This country needs a serious rethinking of how it assigned value to people._ But what she said was, "I'm sorry." Her hand hovered over his shoulder, almost but not quite touching. "Perfect little prince? I think what we need now is more a Prince of Thieves than a Detective Prince. It's certainly what I need."

"You think so? All that stuff about Dr. Kurusu..."

Sae clenched her free hand. Wherever Kurusu's mother was now, she hoped she was having a perfectly miserable time. _Not that I was much better_. "You taught me to believe in justice, but justice is giving people what they deserve. That includes the good and smart being rewarded, not just the guilty being punished." She cleared her throat and tried to make her voice professional. "I want to make another deal. You do your best to keep me safe in that other world, and I look out for you in this one. We can be each other's...knights in shining armor." She hated the phrase, considering what Makoto had told her about Leviathan's appearance, but she couldn't think of another one.

But no jokes or taunts ever came. "You know something, Ms. Niijima? I think justice suits you. This is a deal that I can take." This time his smile was warm and real and dazzling, sending a different kind of spark racing through her and reminding her of other things she thought she had forgotten. "Good thing, since this is your new office. And we can start right now. There's five people I need to track down in that world, people I imagine would be very interesting to an honorable prosecutor…"

An hour later, when Morgana had finally managed to drag Kurusu to bed for good, Sae opened her laptop and tried again.

 _It has been my pleasure and honor to not only observe Mr. Kurusu, but to consider him a friend. In a society that values winning above virtue and credentials above knowledge, his integrity and passion are a breath of fresh air. If Japan has a future, it will be with men like him._


	4. Chapter 4

_November 28_

Makoto frowned as she looked Akira up and down. "We don't have to go in today."

Akira gave her a grimace of his own. He was learning more than he would have liked about the consequences of what the police had done to him. The pain in his left shoulder, for one. He was fine most of the time, but on cold, damp days like today, it was a dull ache that flared up and do something that hacked and his capacity for rational thought like a machete. "I'll feel better in the Metaverse. Besides, your sister needs information."

Ryuji snickered beside him. "Right, information." He looked down at his leg. "You've got a point about the Metaverse, though. Having a Persona is the best rehab I've ever had."

Makoto rolled her eyes, but twenty minutes later they were standing in front of a restaurant that looks like something out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Sociopathic. There was too much gilding to be called elegant, and the shadowy waiters spoke with exaggerated French accents. Even the name—Café d'Elite—spoke of exclusion and snobbery. But, of course, if Shido and his followers cared about the lowly masses, the Phantom Thieves wouldn't be here.

At least he did feel better. Pain slid away until it was only a memory. He was stronger, faster here in the Metaverse. He had the power to summon fire or lightning or to bring someone back from the brink of death. Something shone on the ground in front of him. A diamond, not especially large, but brilliant and flawless and cut to show that off. He pocketed it. The Metaverse could make you more than what you were, more than a despised high school student. Powerful and wealthy enough to impress even a public prosecutor.

"So we just find this politician and start talking?" Ryuji asked. "And then probably punching?"

Makoto pointed to an empty table bearing a blue flower. "That's where he'll be. We just sit at one of the nearby tables and wait for him to show up." Another frown. "It'll look suspicious if one of us goes to the table alone."

"I want in on this! Big fancy restaurant probably has steak, right?"

"You know that you can't actually get full from anything in the Metaverse, right?"

"It's steak!"

Akira cleared his throat. "I'll go with you, Queen. We want more than just the letter of introduction. We want information on Shido's activity to build the case. Skull, you can't interrogate for crap."

Ryuji glared at him beneath the mask. "Just because you have a crush on the prosecutor doesn't mean you get to do everything."

Six pairs of eyes turned towards them, and the sounds of the restaurant fell away. Akira's face burned as he looked around for a nice dark hole or an eight-headed demon or anything that wasn't his friends staring at him. "I—I—" he squeaked. Wonderful.

"Don't look at us like that." Futaba smirked. "You haven't exactly been Mr. Subtle for the last few days. Personally, she's way too cold and serious for me, but whatever makes you happy. Or are you hoping that was a little bit of her Shadow left over?"

"Joker has a crush on my sister?" Makoto's fingers flexed, and Akira had a sudden mental image of a flash of light and rush of wind that had left an entire room of Shadows is nothing more than seared husks.

Morgana blinked at him. "I didn't know you were in love with her. Is that why you been looking at her like that? Ms. Niijima is your Lady Ann?"

Akira raked his hand through his hair. "Can we stop talking about this and focus on the politician and the fact that Skull is probably right about it ending in violence?" He hoped it would. Battle was a few minutes of hyperfocus as your world narrowed to sound and smell and how you were going to kill the thing in front of you before it killed you. No time to think of traitorous detectives who might have been your friend or imperious prosecutors who made your skin tingle and your breath come fast. He mentally sorted through his options before picking a Persona: Satan, hulking and terrifying even to the denizens here. If there was anything human in this politician, he would be wetting his pants.

Akira froze. Satan. The adversary. The prosecutor. Maybe Michael? You couldn't get less prosecutor-y than an angel. The angel who brought the dead to stand in judgment before God. He buried his face in his hands. "Oh, no."

It was going to be a long afternoon.

It did of course, end in violence. The demon was even an eight-headed snake. Even better, they had learned his name. Ooe, until recently LCPP backbencher with a nationalist bent and no particular legislative accomplishments and now United Future Party bigwig and future Minister of Transport. He'd bragged about sucking up to Shido so he could murder that CEO and diplomat. And that Shujin's principal had been murdered when he was no longer useful. Not that Akira had ever liked the guy, but people weren't tools to be thrown away.

Coming back to the real world always felt like being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste. The pain in his shoulder returned as a dull ache as he and Morgana rode the train back to the café. That was the thing about the Metaverse: everything there was temporary except the death and the treasure. He patted his pocket for the reassuring weight of the diamond. Bit by bit, he and the others had become true phantom thieves and not only punished the wicked, but made money doing it. Most would go back into purchasing needed supplies but he'd been able to build a small nest egg. Enough to dream of buying a new telescope and saving for university. University. He'd resigned himself to some third-rate school desperate for talent of any kind, but Sae seemed so certain that the University of Tokyo was still within his grasp.

 _It would be nice to stay here. Sojiro is here. My friends are here. She's here._ And idiot that he was, the last bit mattered.

He wasn't alone when he and Morgana entered the café. Sae had commandeered a booth in the far corner and was typing furiously on her laptop. She had come here almost every night since he had offered the café to her as a sanctuary, and he had learned to read her face and posture the way he had learned to read star maps: that exactly two lines formed between her brows when she was concentrating, that she twirled her pen when she was bored, the twist of her lips that was so like Makoto's when she was angry and trying not to show it.

Morgana popped his head out of the bag and looked between them. "I see now. She really is your Lady Ann. What are you going to do?"

Akira ground his teeth. Do? What was there to do? He had a crush on her, apparently. He liked to watch her work, liked the way her eyes sparked when she had made a breakthrough and the newfound softness in her voice when they talked about Makoto. Electricity coursed through him. He felt as if he had shaken off more than drugs after the interrogation, as if some part of himself that had been dead for the last year had come roaring back to life. If it had been anyone else, he might have done something about it, but Sae wasn't anyone else. She was Makoto's sister and the only hope he had of Shido ever seeing justice. And he was a second-year student with a criminal record. Even he knew when not to press his luck.

But still, he could want. "I'm going to send you to bed. And don't say anything about me going."

But Morgana smiled his cat smile. "Spend time with your lady love. Just don't exhaust yourself."

One of these days someone was going to throw that cat off Sky Tower and he was going to deserve it.

"I wish I could understand his meowing," Sae said without looking up. "I'm always afraid he's talking about me."

Akira ran a finger around his collar as heat spread across his cheeks. "Just discussing some fallout from the infiltration. I got a name for you: Ooe."

That earned him a look up. Her eyes were hard and glittering, another expression that was becoming familiar to him. "I knew it. And let me guess: he ordered the subway accident back in April? He had the most to gain from the Minister of Transport's resignation. And, again, a nationalist politician drawn into Shido's orbit. At this rate I'm going to vote Progressive."

Akira raised an eyebrow. Murder seemed an infinitely safer topic and he slid into the booth opposite her. "If you knew he was responsible, why didn't you do something? I mean not that your director would have let you but..."

"At first, because I was a self-obsessed coward." Her voice was acid. "You don't rock the boat or go after unsafe targets unless you want to get fired. Bringing him down would have killed my career even if he wasn't involved in a conspiracy to take over the country." She shifted and her expression changed to something softer and almost haunted. "And now, it's because I wasn't certain. I've been wrong about so much. I won't crush someone based solely on my feelings. I have to follow the evidence."

Akira remembered something Akechi had told him when he had presented his plan to steal Sae's heart. _"If you don't, she'll either discover who you are or she'll frame some poor soul to be the Phantom in your place. All that matters is the victory."_ He wondered if it was true and decided that it didn't matter. No one was punished for what they might have done. "Well, now you have the queen of evidence. And solved Kobyakawa's murder too."

But Sae was frowning at her screen again. "A pity Shadow testimony isn't admissible. To convict him of the murders per se, I'd need to prove the mechanism of the rampages and mental shutdowns. And that would require testimony from either Akechi or a Phantom Thief."

Akira felt as lightheaded as if he had just entered the Metaverse. Testimony would mean revealing their identities. Being branded as murderers. Their future dashed upon the rocks as prison or even the death penalty awaited them. "That's what it'll take to bring Shido down? We go down just as hard?" Bile burned in his throat. It was too much to ask of anyone.

"Easy there," she murmured. "The only ones going down will be Shido and his conspirators. May I tell you that dirty secret of prosecutors? If we can't get you on the most serious charge, we'll be happy to get you on the small ones. The sheer number of yakuza we've finally put away for tax evasion would boggle the mind." She turned the screen so Akira could see a column of numbers. Bank statements, far more complex than what his mom had to deal with. "These are a record of Ooe's finances dating back several years. A bunch of small irregularities. Nothing on their own, but together they are consistent with him laundering money. Maybe money he funneled in exchange for a shutdown, maybe something more mundane. Either way, it can and will land him in prison for years. And much more provable to a panel of judges than the Metaverse." Her smile was grim. "Of course, if you can capture Akechi and convince him to testify, I won't turn you down."

Akira leaned back. "That was downright subtle, Ms. Niijima. Clever, even." And it meant never having to choose between pursuing justice and keeping his freedom. "I'd forgotten that you are actually a good investigator."

Once, that would have earned him a furious roar at best, but tonight she only smiled. "We poor mortals aren't completely useless. Give us some credit, Mr. Kurusu. Someday we may be able to tie our own shoelaces." Another thing he was learning about Sae: she could be funny. Not the way Ryuji or Futaba were: her humor was bitter, her jokes over so fast that you might miss them if you blinked. But humor.

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm just used to your methods involving a little more, er, brute force."

"You mean threats and blackmail. Call things by their proper names. You don't need to spare my feelings." She sighed. "I thought it would be the easiest way to get what I wanted, and it was. People gave me exactly what I expected to see. Only what I expected wasn't the truth. And then I started to believe it was the only way way I could get information. And then you showed up." She chuckled to herself. "Are you sure that you didn't do anything to me in that other world? Because I feel like I was in a mental fog these past three years and I can finally think straight. Put two and two together. Even be downright subtle."

"I'm…glad." Akira's mouth was dry. Maybe that was why he was losing his mind all of a sudden. If Sae were only gorgeous, that would've been one thing. Ann was gorgeous, and they got along fine. But gorgeous and darkly funny and just as smart as he was? A thief could only take so much. "I like this version of you."

A flush spread across her cheeks. "Thank you." Silence settled between them, warm and quiet. The kind that could lull you into a deep sleep even when the world was going to hell.

So of course the pain in his shoulder picked that moment to come spiking back. Akira hissed and cringed. He'd felt far worse right after he'd come home, but that was a blur from the sodium penthenol. This pain could sneak up on him at any time, and he hated it.

"Mr. Kurusu? What's wrong?" But before Akira could reassure her, Sae was on her feet and at his side. Her brows knit together and her lips pursed. "Is it from the Shadows?"

"No. It just flares up sometimes. I'll be fine." He held up his hand to shield himself. Sae shouldn't see him like this.

 _Why not? She's seen me worse than this. She's seen me cry._ Akira took a deep breath to steady himself. In this world he was usually the one seeing people in pain or frightened and trying to soothe their problems. It seemed the least he could do when their bonds with him were what powered the Personas that kept him alive. But Sae had been the one to see him half-dead. Maybe it would be all right "My shoulder's been bothering me a lot lately. Ever since…" _Ever since the police tortured me_ hung in the air. Torture. One thing he couldn't call by its proper names.

He didn't have to. Sae's eyes darkened until they were like flames barely controlled by a grate as she trembled. "Those bastards!" Her hands clenched and unclenched. "I'm going to them and I'm going to—" She inhaled. "No. I will not resort to vigilantism like a barbarian. Do you remember what they looked like?"

Akira stared at her. "What? The police? There's not anything you can do, is there?" But through the haze, he had a pleasant vision of the tall police officer who had kicked him in the ribs rotting in prison.

"Not with Shido running around, no. But after...there are limits to the brutality that's tolerated. And they've crossed that line. And one thing my father taught me: a bad officer is never bad just the one time. SIU is supposed to be bringing to justice public servants who have abused their trust, not perpetrating those abuses!"

"Angling to be promoted straight to Director?" he asked through gritted teeth. "I hear that the reform platform is really popular these days."

"You really are something." Her hand hovered over his good shoulder. "You should get some rest."

"And you are worse than Morgana." Akira shook his head. "I can never sleep when I'm like this." He had tried, but the pain had been there scraping at him until he had dug out a DVD just to have something to distract him. "Can we just talk for a bit?"

"Of course." She slid in the booth beside him, her knee brushing against his. The warmth of it spread over Akira and filled him until the pain was at the edge of his mind. "What about?"

"I don't know. We did kind of skip the small talk stage, didn't we?" He thought. They had seen so many sides of each other in the last few days. Maybe…maybe that was another reason that he was treasuring every glancing touch and why Sae Niijima of all people was the one rousing him from the stasis of the past year. He could show her everything. He could geek out about astronomy and talk about the Metaverse and wince in pain and she would be here sitting beside him. There was no pity in her eyes, just anger and the awkwardness of someone remembering the ordinary rhythms of life. She was comfortable. "So what's being a prosecutor like? You know, when you're not putting your life on the line. Makoto said you really loved it when you started, and the way you talk about putting people away, well, it's like when Yusuke talks about art."

"You're ridiculous." But she smiled when she said it.

"What are friends for?"

"You're the most extraordinary friend I've ever had." She stumbled over her words like a blind man feeling his way down a street without a cane. "I'm glad you consider me a friend."

"I think we are." Friends. His world was growing bigger and richer just like hers was. He was learning to dream again and it was because of her. She would probably never get the butterflies in her stomach that he did when he looked at her. It didn't matter. "I'm glad I met you."

"I am too." Her hand covered his, and the last of the pain faded away for the moment. "So you want to hear all about the boring life of a public prosecutor?"

"How can it be boring? It's your life." He looked down at their hands, her long, pale fingers atop his calloused ones and shivered. There was so much power in these little things. Not the flashy stuff of Personas, but then the forces that governed the universe wern't flashy until one day he looked up at the sky to see the light from a thousand-year-old supernova. "I think you can call me Akira now."

"I guess we are past formalities." She smiled, as small and bright as the diamond he carried. "Akira."

"Sae."


	5. Chapter 5

_December 2_

The email was short and to the point: _Crossroads, 8 PM. -Ohya._

Sae leaned back in her chair. When she had been a young law student and her father had been alive, her dreams of being a prosecutor had been full of idealism and excitement. Secret meetings with informants, patiently putting a case together against people who thought themselves above the law. How ironic that she was finally getting a chance to do all that after she discovered that the actual prosecutor's office was a sewer pit even when they weren't knee-deep in a conspiracy to take over the government.

"You're too pretty to be working so hard."

Sae willed herself not to stiffen. Handa was a twenty years her senior, with watery eyes and sweaty hands, but that would have been forgivable if he had been intelligent or witty or had anything to recommend him beyond a little power. "I'm only trying to do my best, sir."

"Don't you ever dream of having someone take you away from all this?" His voice was sweet and syrupy. "You know, with all the disruption around here, I'm going to be deputy director soon. A very important man. A man it would be very useful for you to know."

Her eyes narrowed. Another person who would benefit from Shido's rise and therefore a potential conspirator.

He continued. "Why don't you and I get to know each other?" His hand covered hers and edged slowly up her arm. "I can give you the life you deserve."

Her skin crawled. For as long as she could remember, there had been the men leering and groping at her, thinking that because she was beautiful, she therefore must be available. And why not? Centuries of tradition told them that the ideal woman dreamed of nothing but children and home and finding a suitable man to satisfy those desires. Working outside the home after marriage, seeing her career as more than a stopgap before someone else swooped in to provide financial security was unthinkable.

She pulled her hand back. Sae had never had Makoto's talent for martial arts, but she learned to make her voice as sharp and threatening as a knife. "I think I'll make my own life."

His eyes bulged. "You're turning me down? Me who's going to be the second most important man in this department? Me who has our future Prime Minister's ear?" He laughed. "They told me No-Heart Niijima would be a tough nut to crack. You might want to rethink that. Nobody wants a frigid bitch in his bed, no matter how pretty she is. And nobody wants to work with her either. You'll be lucky to be working traffic cases when this is over, and you'll be miserable and alone."

"I think I prefer alone to the alternatives."

Handa slammed the door behind him. Sae rubbed her temples. Sometimes, she wondered why she stayed here. There had to be ways of fighting for justice that didn't involve being treated like a piece of meat or worse. She supposed she should thank Akechi. A month ago, she would have been terrified that Handa could have killed her chances for promotion and she would have had to find a way to turn him down without puncturing his ego. But a woman whose ambition had been stolen from her had the luxury of not caring.

No-Heart Niijima. The nickname was normally only a whisper and Sae usually tried to pretend she didn't know about it. The only woman on the law school faculty had taken her out for ramen early in her first term and told the truth to her brilliant but naïve student. She would have to work twice as hard for half as much, never let any strong emotion show the office. She would have to work longer and harder than anyone just to be taken seriously. If they called her a bitch for it, that was a sacrifice she would have to make. And so, she had donned the mask of ice queen. And then her father had died and it had become her true face.

It wasn't, she thought, that she was opposed to marriage in theory. Or a boyfriend, or a lover. But finding someone she could see as an equal and saw her the same way was the tricky part. Someone who she could imagine building a life with. Coming home after work and talking. Making love on a lazy Sunday. A partner against the world who didn't give a damn that she wasn't some ideal of submissive femininity and didn't want to be. And if that was too much to ask for, well, it was better than being at the beck and call of someone who saw her only as the bits between her legs.

Crossroads was as crowded and smoky as ever. Sae sat at the bar and signaled for Lala to pour her a whiskey. It had been nearly a year since she had been able to come here, and her mother would probably rise from the grave to punish her daughter for daring to step foot inside, but it was nice to have a place where she didn't have to conform to some impossible standard. And she wasn't the only one. Crossroads drew far more than the lesbians, gays, and transgender people that one would expect. She recognized three clerks from the courthouse, angling for drinks and the attention of the handsome young host behind the bar.

She peered. Was that Akira? He wore the same kind of glasses, and his hair was a tousled mess that fell almost-but-not-quite in front of his eyes. But this young man had an easy smile that was just a bit too polished. He leaned in when he talked to the women, touching them ever so slightly and smiling even wider when they giggled in response. Conversation was one of the things you paid for, and a little harmless flirting could feel wonderful after a long day with men who didn't care about you and couldn't even be bothered to pretend. She tried to imagine Akira charming a strange woman, but couldn't manage it.

The host leaned in. "A beautiful and charming woman like you should be treated like a princess."

Sae's eyes widened. It was Akira. She would know that voice anywhere. But what was he doing here? The Akira she had come to know was charming, passionate about his astronomy and his fight for justice, and as brilliant as the stars, but always a little nervous, holding something back when he spoke to her. But then he smiled again, brilliant and dazzling, but with none of the warmth she had seen in Leblanc. The man before her could charm and seduce without even an effort.

Something burned deep within her. Fear for him being out in public and something else... not the cancer of resentment that had created a Palace, but a foolish, irrational jealousy. She wanted to be the one he was looking at. Stupid. His smiles weren't even real. She had spent her whole life around quick-smiling charmers: she didn't need more. Better to focus on important matters, like keeping him safe and figuring out what he was doing here in the first place.

 _But wouldn't it be nice to be flattered and spoiled? He'd treat you the way you deserve._

She waited until Lala brought her the whiskey. "New host?"

Lala smiled. "I don't normally hire high schoolers, but he's reliable, keeps the customers happy. Friend of Ohya's, only one besides me that she thinks is more interesting than a bottle when she's here." Her eyes glittered. "I didn't know you liked them young."

Sae flushed scarlet. "I don't!" Akira was handsome, but Sae had noticed that the same way she had noticed that his hair was messy or that he shoved his hands into his pockets when he was nervous. He had been bracketed off as "Phantom Thief" and "Makoto's friend" something too important to mingle with transient attraction. Until two minutes ago. "I was simply curious!"

But Lala was already waving him over. "I've got a customer that hasn't been here in a while, and I want to keep her business. Give her a good evening, all right?"

"You got it." And then Akira saw her. His face froze, and Sae found herself wishing that he wasn't wearing his glasses. He was so much easier to read without them. He smiled the false, charming smile that Sae had seen before, but not since the night of the interrogation. "By the end of the evening, you won't want to go anywhere else."

But when Lala was gone, Akira hunched over the bar. "What are you doing here?" he hissed.

"I could ask you the same question. At least I can legally drink."

"You wound me. I'm working on a lead for…business."

Phantom Thief work, then. He was only being recklessly noble, and recklessly noble seemed to be in the air lately. "Likewise."

She could feel Lala's gaze on them. "A good time!"

Right. She didn't know what, if anything, Lala knew of Akira's double life, but drawing attention to themselves was a very bad idea. And in a place like this, there was only one way to avoid drawing attention. She flushed again, and it was a deeper burn than anything she could remember. "I need you to flirt with me."

Akira went very still and his face grew pale. "What?" he whispered, shocked and disbelieving and something else. He looked around at the bar patrons. "Right. We'll give them a show." He leaned forward again, shoulders no longer hunched and his movements fluid as he looked at her lapel badge. "A prosecutor, hm? We get a lot of civil servants, but so rarely someone who's on the front lines, so to speak. It must be very exciting."

 _Always give them what they expect to see._ Just another bored, frustrated woman who needed to let off steam. "Only if you consider paperwork exciting." She drank. "It wouldn't be so bad except for the people I have to deal with."

"I heard there were some shakeups... an important person died. You'd think they would give you a break."

"Never a break." Tension slathered over her shoulders. Handa's words shouldn't have bothered her, but they did. "I'm competent, and I have standards, and therefore I am a 'frigid bitch' according to some people."

His eyes darkened enough that Sae could see it even behind his glasses. "Some jerk hit on you? Give me his full—" Akira inhaled. "Anyone who says that you're frigid is an idiot. I've only known you for five minutes, and I can tell that that's not true. A woman like you should have standards."

"A woman like me? Pretty, you mean. I bet you say that that to everyone."

"I do, but not how you mean it. Everybody deserves to be treated with respect and have their no mean no. That people have to come here and tip me to have someone listen to them is a shame. And I wouldn't tell you that you were pretty, anyway."

Sae raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"One: you aren't 'pretty.' You are absolutely stop-traffic gorgeous. Two: you know it and everybody around you knows it. The problem is that they want you to be just gorgeous." He colored, and the mask slipped the tiniest fraction. "No, I'd praise you for everything else. You're a prosecutor, so you must be smart. Brave, to face down criminals and conspirators and monsters. A fierce dedication to justice. And there are men who appreciate that, believe me."

They looked at each other. Sae sucked in a breath, and her fingers tingled with the urge to remove his glasses. To discover how much of this was Akira and how much was a carefully-crafted mask. Oh, he was good. She wanted someone to say that kind of thing to her, and he had known it. Probably a good thing he only wanted to be an astronomer; a man like that could have Japan wrapped around his fingers more thoroughly than Shido ever would.

"Sorry I'm late," Ohya said as she sat down beside Sae. She smiled at Akira. "How is my favorite junior reporter and occasional boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" Sae whispered. Well, that was one way to get her hormones back under control.

"I'll explain it to you later."

But Ohya was looking between them with a smile on her face. "Am I interrupting something? Pretty daring for you of all people to be making a play for a prosecutor. Considering."

So Ohya was one of the people that knew. Which probably explained the increase in stories about the Phantom Thieves. She forced her breathing back to normal. "Akira's a friend. I have a feeling we're all working the same case, so to speak. You have information for me?"

"That politician you asked me to look into? Well it turns out that he's buddies with the one Kayo was investigating. And he has financial interests in what looks like a shell corporation that has a former noble on the board. Said former noble is pretty chummy with Shido, too. Introduced into a bunch of other nobles. And they don't sully themselves with commoners without a damn good reason."

"Yeah, you have to pretend to be royalty," Akira muttered darkly. "But then it turns out they don't take no for an answer either."

By the time Sae left Crossroads, her mind was buzzing. Just how deep did this conspiracy go? Mob bosses, fast food titans, now members of the former _kazoku_ families. To take down Shido, she would have to sully every institution that held the country together, institutions that everyone was trained to respect from the time they could talk. Even her most honorable mentors would have balked at taking on the whole country.

She let the neon and the thrum of the bass wash over her as she leaned against a brick wall. Shinjuku was everything her mother had warned her against back when she still hoped to have a ladylike daughter with respectable hobbies like flower arranging. And Sae had tried to keep Makoto away too, for a different reason. With freedom came predators of all kinds who could steal away her future because of the most innocent of slips. This was what she was risking her life for: host and hostess clubs, massage parlors, warrens where yakuza blackmailed high schoolers. There was a part of her that wanted to tell Shido he could have the place.

She looked again. There was the fortuneteller providing comfort and guidance, lovers walking close together, and even other bars like Crossroads where those the rest of the world despised discovered they weren't alone. She could fight for that.

"Careful," Akira said as he exited the bar and crossed to her. "The prosecutor's prosecutor in a place like this might cause a scandal. You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Says the man who is supposed to be dead. I hope Lala at least restricts you to the orange water."

"Don't worry, Prosecutor. I'm in full compliance with the law." The smile he gave her was his own, but Sae still inhaled sharply. That smile promised warmth and someone who knew and agreed how foolish and unfair the world could be. "It's a nice bar, not that I have much to compare it to. And it pays well. Fifty-five hundred a night, just to listen to people that don't have anyone else."

Sae shifted. She should say something. Even if it had all been an act for the best of reasons, she had forced him out of whatever it was they had built over the last few days. "I'm sorry. For making you act like that. I don't know how you can pretend to be so charming."

"Pretend to be charming? I'm always charming." He clutched his heart, but there was something a little practiced about it. Not quite the real Akira. "It's what they need. Just like Ichiko needed an excuse to be sneaking around when we were investigating her partner's arrest." He snapped his fingers. "Poof. Her underage boyfriend was born. I can be anything they need, as long as it's not real."

"So everything in there was an act." Acts were good. They meant her current bout of hormones had no more a connection to reality than her crushes on pop singers as a teenager.

"Not everything." He brushed a hand down her arm, an echo of what Handa had done to her. But instead of revulsion, heat sprang up. "You're everything that I said you were. Furthest thing from frigid I ever met. And if some jackass is giving you trouble, just give me his full name."

"No heists." It was one thing to use his powers to save the country, but Akira was still a vigilante, and she was sworn to work within the law. "I'm used to it. Still, it was nice to hear you say all that. No wonder Lala pays you so well."

"Just the truth." He kept touching her, ghosting, not quite caresses. "Someone should say those things to you. I'll say them as much as you want. There are people who would be falling all over you in a second. Not just because of how you look, but because you're the best attorney they've ever known. Because they know that you pulled yourself out of darkness. Because this is the place for misfits, and they're a misfit too."

She ought to back away. They were edging close to a pit Sae couldn't afford to fall into. And he was younger than Makoto. But he didn't look young. He looked like a soldier fighting a war for everything she held dear. And he was looking at her the way she had once wanted someone to look at her. "A scientist and a gallant. You're full of surprises."

"You don't know the half of it." He swallowed and threaded their fingers together, giving her time to pull away if she wanted. She didn't. "There are rules in my lines of work. Yours too. I know that. But I could give you a little that gallantry, from time to time, if that's what you want."

"I think I would like that, very much." She took his glasses from him. He sucked in a breath. His skin was warm and soft with no trace of the earlier bruises. Just a dashing young man who had seen her at her worst and still said that he saw something worth affectin in her. Who was brilliant and should be the rising star of Japan, except the same system that propped up Shido had cast Akira down. The system that had told her that she should never want to be a great attorney.

 _Then that system deserves to be in ashes. I'll risk everything to make it so._ "Very much indeed."


	6. Chapter 6

_December 5_

The Shadow—Wakasa—looked up Akira, his face transformed by horror and grief. "I've been such a monster! Depriving those innocent people of their livelihood and taking advantage of them."

Akira kept his face impassive. Watching Kamoshida's Shadow break down in tears and ask for death had been shocking, but now he was almost used to the grief. "Make up for what you've done."

"I will! I'll return all the money I've stolen and apologize and turn myself into the police." A sob. "And beg my mother's forgiveness for being such a rotten son."

The Shadow shimmered and vanished, leaving behind a ruby no bigger than Akira's fingernail. He exhaled and watched as Ryuji pocketed the stone. His muscles ached with a pleasant exhaustion. There was no sign of the wall that would have signaled the bottom of this section of Mementos, but they were close to solving the labyrinth's secrets and helping Morgana discover his identity, Akira was sure of it. And it felt good to put an end to people like Wakasa. He was the scourge who visited retribution upon the deserving. And there were few people who deserved retribution more than those who preyed on the lonely and forgotten.

Returning to the real world always felt a little like being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste. His trenchcoat and dress shirt became his ordinary hoodie and the ache in his shoulder was there to greet him. He waited until the others had turned away before rubbing it. Takemi had given him some exercises, but he was starting to think the injury was something he was going to have to live with. Almost enough to make a man wish he could stay in the Metaverse.

Almost. "See you guys tomorrow? Gotta get back to Leblanc for, um, coffee stuff."

"Coffee, right." Ryuji put an arm around his good shoulder. "Sounds like our fearless leader is running back home to see Miss Prosecutor. Hey, Makoto, have you given him the whole 'hurt my sister and I'll break your legs' lecture yet? Or are you going to give her the lecture?"

Akira's face burned. "I am not dating Sae." Which was true. They held hands sometimes, or he would walk her as far as the station or she would sneak him leftovers from an expensive restaurant she'd been forced to visit with her colleagues. Quantum, he decided, simultaneously dating and not dating. A man who had to know as much about physics as he did learned to embrace such paradoxes. And Phantom Thieves worked within tensions and ambiguities. "And Makoto knows that I'm a perfect gentleman. "

Makoto sighed. "I suppose this is better than worrying she's going to corrupt herself." But as they exited the subway station, she gripped his wrist. "Be careful with her." There was no anger in her voice, just steely resolve. "She's been hurt enough. And so have you."

He nodded. "I like her." Which sounded like such a dorky, kid thing to say, like he didn't want to do anything beyond pass notes to her. But after Kaneshiro's little speech about his plans for both sisters and the way Handa treated Sae like a piece of meat, he felt it was important to specify. "I don't want her hurt either."

"Good. This is just strange. And not something I really want to talk about. At all. Ryuji's teasing really doesn't help. " She released him. "I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, we can get that fourth letter."

"Hopefully." The Palace seemed like a much safer topic of discussion. "I'll bring some smokescreens. Make it easier for us to move around if we get turned into rats again."

"And I'll work on a way of getting us through the engine room." Her voice softened. "If this had to happen, I'm glad she's falling for someone responsible. Just keep on being responsible." It wasn't quite approval, but it was probably the best he could hope for.

Shibuya thronged with people, and it was easy to pull his hood up and become just another face in the crowd. There had always been a buzz to the city, but over the last month it had become desperate, as if the shopping, drinking, and eating were a distraction from something else. As if he weren't the only one who thought something was about to end.

Shido was on the TV in the square again, smug and falsely warm as always. "We need new solutions for a new century. We need a muscular foreign policy. We need to be a great country again!"

Akira ground his teeth. It was the same buzzwords as always, but several dozen people had stopped to watch him with open mouths. He thought of Yoshida, who was just as charismatic and had actual solutions to the lousy economy, but drew only a sliver of the crowds. He wished he could make them see, beat all their Shadows into submission until Tokyo stopped fawning over a thief, rapist, and murderer. But the Phantom was neither more nor less than an angel of retribution. He could engender remorse and a desire to face justice. He could remove harmful desires that manifested as certain kinds of mental illness. But putting a desire for good in someone? He couldn't do it.

The clerk jumped when he entered Rafflesia."Kurusu? I haven't seen you in ages. You here to work?"

"Shop, actually." He'd offered Sae gallantry, and there was nothing more gallant than flowers for no reason. "I need some edelweiss."

"Edelweiss? Not roses or forget-me-nots?"

"Too cliché. It has to be edelweiss." Half of his job as a host was learning what people needed to hear. Not wanted, but what could soothe the bruises of their spirit and set them on the right path. You didn't tell a woman like Sae she was hot, or at least you didn't lead with it, because the world never allowed her to forget her looks for a second. You reminded her of her other, better qualities that meant she didn't fit in the box everyone wanted to place her in. The ones that meant she was the one who made your heart race instead of someone else. "It symbolizes competence and power."

"You do know ninety-eight percent of our customers don't even know what flowers are supposed to mean, right? They just want something that looks good."

"She's one of the two percent." At least he hoped that the Shadow had decked herself out in yellow roses because the real Sae knew what they meant.

"You are absolutely besotted," Morgana whispered from his bag. "Can you get another basket for Lady Ann?"

"If I do, will you stop using words like 'besotted?' And stop bugging me go to bed?" But he bought the second set of flowers all the same and promised to sneak them to Ann's apartment.

Just two gentlemen thieves being gentlemen.

The café was nominally closed by the time he came home, but Sojiro had left the TV on, and then news played in the background. Sae sat at her usual booth, a file folder next to her laptop. She looked up when she saw him and smiled. Akira sucked in a breath. The smiles themselves were small, almost private, but her eyes always seemed to brighten a bit, and after so long seeing only her frown or the Shadow's sneer, they felt like a rare and precious gift. "Akira. Makoto called. I understand you had a productive day." She noticed the flowers. "And had time to go shopping."

His mouth went dry. For all the joking about dating and quantum states, he wasn't quite sure where the lines were in their...whatever this was. As long as it wasn't given a name and they didn't do anything that might get her arrested or his probation revoked, he thought they were okay. But there was a vast gray area between what they were before and walking right over there and kissing and nipping along the curve of her lips. He bet she tasted like apples. "I...Makoto was saying your apartment looked a little dreary. Maybe you could spruce it up? Or put them on your desk so that guy will think you're taken."

Sae's eyes widened, and she stood. "For me? No one's gotten me flowers in years." She caressed the petals as if her touch might incinerate them. "Edelweiss. Courage and power."

"They suit you." That looked at each other, and Akira saw an expression he had only ever seen from her Shadow, after she hadn't realized the girl in the mask was Makoto and she had come to help her, not steal the Treasure. "Too much?"

"No. They're beautiful." Her eyes were bright. "Thank you. And I, ah, got you something as well, in a way." She gestured to the file folder. He took it and frowned. The photograph of the detective who had beat him stared back at him. "Multiple excessive force complaints, shuffled from department to department. Even Shido is having a hard time protecting him. I talked to a friend of Dad's. By this time tomorrow, that officer should find himself under a very thorough and unpleasant investigation. I expect he'll be fired before the month is out."

Akira rocked back on his heels. Fired? He didn't hate the detective the way he hated Shido, or even the way he hated Akechi, but he still wanted someone to wield the sword of justice against him. And, he thought with something like relief, that it didn't always have to be a Phantom Thief. "Thank you. I'm glad that bastard won't be hurting people for much longer."

"We prosecutors should be good for something. And even Shido has his limits on how many people he can protect." Her voice was light, but her lips were pursed as she stared at the edelweiss. "I just wish he was the only one. Anything for a confession. Anything for a win. And then we act shocked when good men almost die." She made a contemptuous noise in the back of her throat. "The courthouse is still a casino."

"But at least now there are some honest dealers looking to catch the cheats."

"I suppose there are." Her smile was sad. "There's so much we could do, if we cared about real justice. It's almost impossible to get a good defense attorney if you're poor. And even the good attorneys only have access to half the evidence we collect. We could shorten the amount of time people can be confined without charges." She sighed. "And we could learn to tolerate failure. I'm sorry. You've had a long day, and here I am boring you."

"You listen to me talk about quasars and whether Pluto should be classified as a planet. And I like hearing you talk like this." All fire and passion, which was intoxicating for its own sake, but it was more than that: a reminder that the world needed reform, but that it was worth saving. "I still think you should throw your hat in the ring for director."

"Flatterer. The only way I'm getting anywhere near the job is if literally everyone else in the department is fired or resigns. I'm only a poor, young prosecutor. Worry about yourself, future scholar." There was a light dusting of pink on her cheeks as she turned away.

Akira suppressed a smile and headed to the kitchen. "Dinner?"

But to his surprise, she followed him "You can let me help you know."

His smile widened. "Having a patron help prepare their food. Sojiro would kill me."

She snorted. "I can't be a patron when you haven't let me pay for the last month. Does Sojiro know about these comps?"

"He doesn't care." Which was true. Akira had been quietly slipping money into the cash register for the last month. A triviality compared to the riches of Mementos. "But I wouldn't mind a little company."

They were halfway through the apple curry when a familiar voice cut through the silence. "Of course, the Phantom committing suicide could hardly be considered unexpected. Such things often happen to insurgents."

Sae stiffened beside him, and Akira's shoulder twinged dangerously. Akechi's voice was as smooth and sympathetic as always, the same one that had made Akira believe that it was okay to tell him things he hadn't even told Ryuji. "The disaffected of society often lash out in an attempt to give their lives meaning. My sources within the police department suggest he may come from a broken home and suffered a series of academic and social setbacks. If his crimes were not so heinous, I would suggest we have compassion for him. He couldn't find a way to fit in and be happy."

Akira hissed. Akechi wasn't just a murderer, he was a complete and utter bastard, his words today a betrayal in a way those gunshots in the police station never could be. The two of them, the lost and abandoned boys who were smarter than anybody else in the room were supposed to change Japan together. He knew—he _knew—_ what the whispers were like and he still aired Akira's dirty laundry for no real reason. His shoulder ached suddenly, just enough to remind him that it was there. "Dammit," he whispered. "And damn Akechi to hell."

Soft arms came around him, and Sae buried her face in his neck. "Don't listen to him," she murmured. She smelled like the flowers and like coffee and like something else that Akira could only describe as _her_ but that made him shiver. "You've made me happy again. I'm happy now."

Akira leaned back against her. His shoulder would always hurt. Japan would chase after faded glory. Friends and family would betray you. But the story didn't end there. Monsters could be brought to justice. Reforms could be made. Families that had been broken by grief could be mended. And a target could gift you something as rare and precious as it was undefinable. The two of you could craft a future from the shattered, hollow spaces and find a place to belong. "Me too."

* * *

 _I've completed the rough draft of Rising Star, so barring Author Existence Failure, this story will have regular, quick updates. Right now, the plan is for the story to end on Christmas Eve, with 15 chapters/50k total._


	7. Chapter 7

_December 8_

Handa smiled at Sae, a wolflike grimace that showed too much of his canines. "I'm not just going to be deputy director." He put his palms on her desk. "You are speaking to the acting and soon-to-be permanent Director of the Special Investigation Unit."

Sae breathed in. It could be for a number of reasons. Appointments weren't always given by strict seniority, especially to such important posts. She mustn't jump to conclusion. "How did that happen?"

"Itai had a...stroke, poor fellow." He couldn't quite hide the hesitation in his voice, and Sae knew. One stroke was tragic, but not unexpected in their line of work. A second director dead in less than three weeks was murder. "I suppose he wasn't strong enough. Japan needs men of action to lead it into a new future." His hand crept closer to her. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider my earlier offer? I can be very good to you."

"Quite. Now, if you'll excuse me sir, I do have a great deal of work to do before the election. Your predecessor was very adamant that nothing remain to trouble the new administration, whoever that may be."

"You know, Niijima, loyalty is a virtue." His voice was low and quiet and dangerous. "I can be very good to you indeed, like I said. Diamonds, European cars, you name it. But I can also be very bad. Took your dad a long time to rise through the ranks of the police, didn't it? You've got a nice apartment now, but I know you didn't grow up in one. I'd hate to see you and your sister go back to the slums because I had to let you go for poor results."

The temperature dropped. Fear settled over her skin. He could ruin her. Makoto was too young to remember their early poverty and the cramped, dirty streets and cheap food and thirdhand bikes that only worked half the time. When she'd finally been able to afford the quiet elegance of their current apartment, she had sworn that she would never be poor again. But the fear was old, half-remembered. She had been here before, and she been a fool. The last Director had threatened her, but she was still here and the Thieves had saved her honor. This was one line she would never have crossed even at her worst. "Goodbye, sir."

"Sae is quite right. She has a great deal of work to do." Akechi's voice was soft and almost flat as he appeared in the doorway. "And while loyalty is certainly important, there are limits to that loyalty. I'm certain that detective was loyal, but his sins are finally catching up to him. You should be careful the same doesn't happen to you."

Handa paled, and Sae wondered if he knew who Shido's personal assassin was. "I see. But if she's not good for the one thing...well you better be damn perfect Niijima. One little slip and you're gone." He stormed out, and Sae would have smiled if the situation weren't so grim. This was the place that had consumed her for the past three years?

"Vile man," Akechi said. "I will never understand why men like him survive and so many good ones are destroyed. He should be careful that his masters don't find him as useless as they found that other officer." His fists clenched. "Beating suspects almost to death, coercing confessions. Such corruption cannot go unanswered forever!"

Sae kept her face neutral. Handa was a nuisance. Akechi could kill everyone she held dear, thought he had done it once already. "Masters?"

He started and seemed to realize what he had implied. "My apologies. In my experience, such men get away with their behavior because someone else finds them useful. Perhaps that time is coming to an end? Maybe all the villains will finally get what they deserve?"

"Maybe. You know, up until a few weeks ago, I had stopped believing in justice. But now...well maybe you're right. But my priority has to be keeping Makoto safe."

"I'm glad to hear you say that." To her surprise, he closed the door. "You wouldn't know why the investigation is occurring now, would you? I understand the officer in charge is a friend of your father's."

A warning prickle traveled up her neck. When Akechi, the brilliant detective just out of middle school, had waltzed up to her desk and offered his help, she told him there were only two topics off-limits: her personal life and her father. Even as she had descended into a rage-filled haze and he had plotted to steal her heart and murder an innocent man, he had abided by those terms. "I'm not close to my father's friends. There was probably too much to overlook; or he made someone important angry, like you said."

He nodded slowly, unconvinced. "These are trying and stressful times. Two directors dead already. The Phantom Thieves still at large. The corrupt finally turning on each other." He looked at Sae, pleading and desperate and almost tender. "You should take Makoto and leave. Before the election. Let the department burn around Handa's ears."

"Akechi?"

"All these mysterious mental shutdowns. Of course, most were the work of the Phantom Thieves, but…well, you can die from a gunshot as easily as these shutdowns. Their leader found that out the hard way." He spoke very rapidly and Sae had to strain to keep up. "I spoke of masters earlier. They can destroy your career and worse if they think it's in their interest. That's what happened to your father. He froze for just a moment and the truck hit him. Because he was getting too close to hurting one of those masters. Those…conspirators."

The room went very still. She had always known her father had been assassinated by the yakuza. It was barely a secret, the official story of a reckless delivery driver a lie. Was Akechi implying that her father had stumbled upon Shido's conspiracy in its inchoate state? It was possible. Kaneshiro had funneled money who-knew-how long. Akira and Makoto had told her how Shido would let his cronies choose the targets of shutdowns as a reward for their loyalty.

 _Have I been sitting across from Dad's real killer all these years?_

Too many questions, too few facts. And a woman with a stolen heart wouldn't care about any of that. "Take it easy, Akechi." She hoped he was too distracted to hear the tremor in her voice. "Dad died doing what was right. It's my job to protect the people he left behind."

"Good, good. Just take your sister and go. You know, I think of all the people in the department, you were the only one that was kind to me."

"Me?" She had never considered herself a kind person, even before her dad died. She was too reserved and cynical, all hard edges and little softness. She had only treated Akechi with the respect due a colleague. One much too young to be consulting with the police, but she was young too.

"You never looked down on me for my humble background. You never attempted to take liberties. I had closer friends, once upon a time, but my need for justice drove us apart."

She thought of Akira, shaking with rage and grief as she held him. How casually the Akechi on the screen had spoken of Akira's broken home. But the Akechi before her didn't look smug or vengeful or any of the things a cold-blooded hitman should look like. It occurred to her that she could tell him. Slam him down into the seat and take his gun before he had a chance to react. "Your plan didn't work," she would say. "I still have my heart. Now tell me everything." She could untangle the threads about Akira, about her father, about the whole conspiracy.

"I take it back," he whispered, almost too quietly for her to hear. "I think I feel a little sorry for the officer. It's the masters who decide who lives and dies. The underlings have no choice. They'll even kill what they love." His pleading look was back. "The daughters shouldn't be the father."

Sae understood. Fear, not just the memory of it, filled her. Akechi was fond of her. He was fond of Makoto. So he had tried in his own way to repair their relationship and save their lives. But he would murder them in either this world or the Metaverse if Shido demanded it. Just as he had murdered her father. He would perhaps be sorry and smile and nod at the friends she left behind and befriend them in turn and pray that he wouldn't have to murder his new friends.

But he would still do it.

"Get some rest, Akechi." She needed to get out of here, find someplace where she could drop this mask of indifference and stupidity and think. She needed to find Makoto, reassure herself that her sister was alive and no assassins had come for her in either world.

So she went home. And waited.

There was a time when she had been proud of this apartment, with its leather upholstery and glass tables. Not so extravagant that she would have to brave the horror of debt, but enough luxury to reassure herself that she was moving up in the world and to wash away the stink of those early years. Now it seemed a frightfully empty place. There should be more pictures, of Makoto and herself and the ones of her parents that she had put into storage after they died. It should look like a family actually lived here, instead of a showroom for success.

Her hands were cold as she made dinner, and the scent of the tonkatsu made her nauseous. Dad was dead. The acting director was dead. The current new director wanted to sleep with her and was one bad day away from firing her because she wouldn't let him. Akechi was suspicious and would murder her if he knew the truth. All of them were connected to a man who wanted to take over Japan. The country's only hope was a teenage boy who had a crush on her and who she was infatuated with herself.

 _Well, when you put it that way..._ A laugh tore from her throat, manic and humorless. She really might actually die doing this, have blood pouring from her eyes like Okumura. Or worse, Makoto would die in that other world, shot or slashed or whatever else happened to a real body in the Metaverse. Justice wasn't a gleaming knight on a white horse; it was a poor boy fighting against forces he couldn't possibly hope to defeat because it was the right thing to do. It was a good man taking on a yakuza clan no one else dared touch, even though he had a family. It was a prosecutor waiting for her sister to come home from a war no one else knew about.

"I'm home." Makoto hung up her coat and stepped out of her shoes. She looked tired, pale with dark circles under her eyes, but unharmed.

Sae looked at her, and a lump formed in her throat. _You are precious to me. I won't let anyone hurt you. Not Shido or Akechi or anyone._ And if she had had a fraction of Makoto's courage, she would have said that out loud. Instead, she asked, "How was your cram school session?" Part of the code they had worked out for the benefit of that silver bug.

"Fine. Got a lot of problem sets done." _We went to Mementos. Took down another target._ She peered at Sae. "You don't look so good. Did something happen at work?"

"Nothing beyond the usual." How did you tell your sister that she might have been fighting alongside your dad's murderer, especially when you weren't sure yourself? Dad had adored them both, but Makoto had been his princess. The one whose eyes had gotten big whenever he talked about his cases and who had begged him for piggyback rides. The white-hot rage she had buried might come out as more than a metal mask and motorbike Persona. All for nothing. "You know, I still owe you that trip to the baths. Why don't we go tomorrow, just you and me?"

A pleased flush spread across Makoto's cheeks and made all the months of distance almost worth it. "Yes! I've got cram school again tomorrow, but after that you and I can have a girls night out."

Sae frowned. "Another session? That's three days in a row."

"We're making really good progress. Almost got to the bottom of a really difficult essay. It's fascinating." She fidgeted. "And I worry we may not have time after the text is over. It feels like everything's ending."

Running around the depths of Mementos, trying to solve Morgana's existential crisis. Meting out retribution to everything from rapists to controlling parents and risking her life every time. "Getting into a good school won't do you any good if you die from exhaustion first."

"I'll be fine. And I need to do as well as I can for as long as I can. Dad would want me to."

She rubbed her temples. Dad. Dad who did his best to help Sae with her homework long after he had stopped understanding it. Dad on that last night, hugging her for the first time in years and making her promise to take care of Makoto. Dad's ashes in a niche in a columbarium not too far from here. The dam broke. Rage and grief and fear spewed out as a tremor seized her. Her eyes burned and her vision wavered. "Just because he martyred himself doesn't mean you have to!"

The silence came slamming down between them like a gavel. Makoto's eyes went wide and Sae covered her mouth with her hand. No. Not again. All the work Makoto and Akira and the others had done, and she had let that thing come roaring back. And Makoto was just staring at her in silent shock. Of course. She had thought Leviathan was buried.

Sae took a deep breath and saw the edelweiss sitting on the table. Courage and power. That was what Akira believed she embodied, not envy. She could choose to live up to those ideals. This time she would do the right thing. She took a step forward, hand out and palm up. "I'm sorry. I'm very proud of what you are doing. I just... I worry about you."

"Sis..." Makoto whispered.

She swallowed. The anger and fear were still there, just beneath. Maybe… Maybe it would have been easier if her heart had been taken, if there was no way the Leviathan within her could ever rise again. "Something did happen today. I don't know if I want to talk about it, but I think I need to cool down for a few minutes. Maybe talk to your tutor about your schedule."

Makoto took her hand and squeezed. "Okay. Okay. I'll make sure dinner's still warm when you get back. He's at Seaside Park with Haru." She forced a smile. "Don't stay out too late."

Sae used the drive to the park steady her breathing. Tokyo was awash in the reds, golds, and purples of sunset. This was what her dad and everyone who came after him had been fighting to protect. What she was fighting and waiting and worrying for right now: these small moments of beauty in ordinary lives and for justice to be done. It was worth it.

 _Even if Makoto doesn't come home one day? If you fall over at your desk tomorrow? People who fight for justice don't get happy endings._

She found Akira sitting on the bench, watching the traffic cross over the bridge into Greater Tokyo. Haru Okumura sat at the opposite end, her face drawn and looking no better than Sae felt. "Yes, a meteor shower!" Akira said. "They're really cool if you've never seen one before." His voice was the same light, charming one that he used at the host club. "You don't even have to stay up late for the Geminids. It'll be fun."

"Aren't meteor showers bad luck?"

"We're Phantom Thieves. We make our own luck. I—" Akira's head snapped up and his face changed as he saw her. He wasn't wearing his glasses again, and his gray eyes seemed to shine with the light of their own even as the sunset softened the lines of his face. He broke into a grin. Sae inhaled, and just for a moment death and fear were very far away. "Sae!"

Okumura shot to her feet and bowed. "Ms. Niijima! Did something happen? Is Makoto all right?"

"You two would know that better than I would." She willed the fluttery feeling in her stomach into the little box where she kept all her emotions when they were a distraction. Prosecutor, not infatuated girl. "She's exhausting herself. Is there a particular reason you have to go into the Metaverse three days in a row? And not even Shido's Palace?"

They looked at each other. "I told you she was pushing herself too hard," Okumura murmured. "And you too. Running yourselves ragged."

"They need me. Us. Everybody thinks we're murderers, and requests keep coming in just the same. What does that tell you?" He raked his hand through his hair. "But it doesn't have to be all of you all the time. It's been just me and Futaba or Morgana before."

"What?" Sae had only a dim picture of how Mementos must look from Akira and Makoto's stories, but the decrepit subway line with spikes jutting from the floor like bone wasn't the sort of place anyone should be alone. "I'm trying to avoid you getting killed. No solo runs."

"She has a point." Haru looked between them. "Thank you for today. Will you be all right if I go home? I want to talk to Tarakura about the coffee shop."

"Sae and I are always excellent company for each other."

Okumura blinked. "Enjoy this time you have together."

Akira waited until she had gone. "Sit next to me? You really are good company." He sighed. "It just...it feels like everything's ending. Like we won't get another shot once we take Shido down."

Everything ending. Makoto had said that too. She sat next to him, their knees brushing. Warmth settled through her. Ridiculous that even being close to him would make her feel better, but there it was. "Everything is just beginning for you, Akira. For everyone." She had to believe that, that this demon stalking them all wouldn't find them. "You are going to become an astronomer. But you have to avoid dying from exhaustion first."

"Point taken. We are all taking a break tomorrow." He smiled. "You were one of those kids that always told the teacher when the others wanted to run off and do something fun on the class trip, weren't you? I bet you were student council president, too."

"Drama club. Always played the villain." She closed her eyes. "In retrospect, I suppose I should have wondered about that."

"Well, you know what they say: the best actors can play roles that are completely opposite of how they really are."

"I said you could be chivalrous. Not a flatterer." Not for the first time, she wondered what she had done to deserve this charmer, the noble knight with messy hair who had fought her worst self and didn't seem to care. "May I ask you something? How do you not go crazy knowing that Shido's men could kill you?"

"Well, for a long time, I didn't really know they were planning on killing me. Never underestimate the power of ignorance and youthful bravado." He sobered. "After Okumura died and you were well, you know, I was scared shitless most of the time. But having an end date helped. And Akechi helped, damn him."

"I think Akechi and Shido killed my father." The words tumbled out before she could stop them. But Akira knew, didn't he? Not just about being afraid of the knife in the dark, but about letting Akechi close only to find out that the Second Detective Prince was a liar and a murderer.

"What?" He put an arm around her. "Sae, what happened today?"

She told him and watched as stormclouds formed in his eyes. "I don't know if it's true, or just my overactive imagination. But I'm scared. Not as much for me as for Makoto. I already have Mom and Dad's ashes. I can't handle hers too. Except I can't fight in your world. All I can do is hope you'll all come home." She was hollow, exhausted by the effort of being the hero he and Makoto believed she was. "Makoto doesn't know. I snapped at her before I came here." She put her face in her hands and exhaled. "I guess your redemption operation didn't work as well as you thought."

"Oh, Sae." Akira pulled her into his arms and one hand came up to stroke her cheek. She shivered. How long since anyone had held and caressed her like this? How long since she had wanted them to? Two years? Three? She ought to pull back. He could flirt with her, give her flowers, even hold her hand, but this was too close to... _to admitting the truth_ whispered some treasonous part of her. But she liked the way his hand was tracing the line of her cheek down to the corner of her mouth. He looked at her like...well, she imagined this was how he looked when he saw the stars.

"My operation went better than I could have hoped," he murmured. "You want to know how I'm dealing? It's because someone in the prosecutor's office thinks I'm going to have a future after all this and that the system can work. So now we have no choice. We have to live and we have to win."

"That simple?"

"That simple." His thumb traced a lazy circle on her skin. "Also, possibly tell your sister what you told me. Take it from a Phantom Thief: the more secrets you keep, the more it wears on you."

He made everything sounds so easy, for all his anger. "On one condition. You actually take that break." She leaned into his palm. One of these days, she was going to regret this. Not today. "Makoto is waiting for me."

Eventually, she did leave.

She found Makoto sitting on the couch, reading a battered leather notebook. Sae's eyes widened. It was her father's investigation notebook. His partner had given it to her after his death, and she had done all she could to forget it. Makoto's brow was furrowed just the way his used to be when he was working hard on a case. She looked up as Sae entered and slammed the notebook shut. "Sis! I'm sorry, I was just thinking about Dad after everything, and I thought this might help.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. He was a good man. The best." He and Makoto were so much alike. Maybe it was time to stop keeping secrets. She ruffled Makoto's hair and took a deep breath. "I love you."

"I love you too." Sae pretended not to notice the tears in Makoto's eyes or the wetness in her own as she burrowed her nose in Sae's neck as she had done after Mom had died. "What happened at work? I mean, can you talk about it?"

"I think I can. After dinner. Maybe we can go to the columbarium, pay our respects." There, she could tell Makoto the truth. They would leave an offering as they ought and find the strength to face this. As a family.

* * *

 _Next chapter should be Mon-Tue. My poor beta has been heroic in getting the chapters back to me and would probably appreciate getting the weekend off. I also broke down and wrote an epilogue that covers January and February. These two have earned it._


	8. Chapter 8

"Ero Handa," Akira whispered into the phone. "Special Investigations Director."

"Candidate found," the Metaverse app informed him in a voice that sounded unnaturally loud in the privacy of his bedroom. So the bastard had his own Palace. No surprise there. In bed with Shido, but not close enough to be bound with his Palace, and a serial sexual harasser. His fingers tightened around the phone. He had been exposed to every variety of human scum over the last six months, but the people who thought their power gave them the right to sex were special kind of disgusting. He couldn't do anything about Akechi, and Shido would fall in a little over a week, but he could stop that little worm from making Sae's job more of a hell than it already was.

"I thought Ms. Niijima told you she didn't want you to handle her boss?" Morgana pounced onto the edge of the bed, and Akira jumped. "You should respect the lady's wishes."

"He's pond scum. And maybe a quick break will help Makoto feel better." In some ways, she had never been better, taking down Shadows with a single strike. The rage that fueled her in the Metaverse had at last come completely unchained. But she seemed more tired than the rest of them put together after they left, and barely spoke to him in this world. Even Eiko couldn't seem to get much out of her.

"I don't think this is what she needs, at least not all the way. And Ms. Niijima said no. "I think what your girlfriend wants is good old geeky Akira." The shopkeeper's bell rang. "That'll be them now."

"I am not a geek. And Sae is not my girlfriend." He put the phone away and marched downstairs. Normal Akira with the bad shoulder, shaky faith, and reawakened dreams couldn't do a fraction of what Joker could, but he could try to do something, even if it was only offer the praise that Sae drank up like his houseplant did water.

She was deep in conversation with Sojiro about something as he descended the stairs. Makoto had already buried herself in her cram school homework at the booth nearest the door. Sae's head turned, and her face lit up in a way that made Akira swallow hard. He hadn't taken her in his arms again, but something had shifted in the last few days. Her fingers twined with his for a brief squeeze. "Akira." And even when he slid in the booth next to her opposite Makoto, her hand rested gently on his arm and their shoulders brushed. Sae Niijima, it turned out, was a toucher once she stopped panicking about it. He thought he saw Makoto's lips quirk into a brief smile. Okay, that was a good start. "Makoto, how do you feel about meteor showers?"

"Aren't those bad luck?" Sojiro asked.

Akira resisted rolling his eyes. Somehow. "You spent years pining after the most brilliant scientist since maybe ever, and you're talking about luck?"

He shrugged. "After how crazy the last few months have been, I'd be crazy not to."

"My friend, you believe bread and wine become flesh and blood. Why not believe in omens and signs as well?"

"Because it's a ridiculous superstition, same with that fortuneteller in Shinjuku."

"Who hasn't been wrong yet." Morgana sniffed and gave a very catlike glare of superiority. "And we spend half our time in Shido's Palace being turned into rats."

"Being turned into a rat is an observable phenomenon!".

Sae stared at him. "You turn into a _rat_? An actual rat?" She looked at Makoto who shrugged. "I'll be leaving this out of the report."

Akira leaned towards her. He had made her believe in the Metaverse, and that had saved his life, but now wasn't the same as making her familiar with it, let alone comfortable. It seemed horribly, bitterly unfair that there was a part of his and Makoto's life that she could never fully share. "It's not so different from this world. It has its own rules and laws—psience, if you will—and we had to figure them out or have Morgana teach them to us, same as you would learn about the Doppler effect." He turned around to glare at Morgana. "Which is why meteor showers aren't really bad luck. The Metaverse is a world where thought makes reality, but in this world we are subject to natural forces, with maybe a real, genuine miracle every fifty years or so."

He closed his eyes. "Besides, they're too beautiful to be bad luck," he murmured, too quiet for anyone but Sae and Makoto to hear him. Sae put an arm around him, and he leaned back against the warmth. "Pieces of the universe coming to us." He opened his eyes. "There's one next week, and I wanted to ask Makoto if she wanted to go out and view it. Take our minds off everything."

Makoto's eyes widened. She had never looked more like her sister. "Go? But we're so close to getting the last letter. "

"We'll have it by then. As for the calling card, I think we should wait until the last possible moment." He shifted and kept his gaze fixed resolutely in front of him, anywhere but at Sae. He didn't like to think of her as the cruel, petty master of the Palace and resented those moments when he had to dredge up the person she used to be. "Like last time. We don't want to give Shido any chance to undo his change of heart."

He felt Sae tense. "Then it's my turn. He's a murderer, and he's going to face justice within the bounds of the law. I owe it to both of you to prove the system works. And to Dad." She bowed her head and whispered, "Fair and square in truth this time. I'm not that thing." It was her turn to swallow. "You know, I think I would very much like to see a meteor shower. You can't see anything in Tokyo. She turned to him, almost a little too conversational. "Next week, I believe you said? We'd have to drive out to the country."

His brain stopped as suddenly and thoroughly as if a Shadow had encased him in ice. Sae wanted to go for a drive? With him? He imagined the hill outside of his hometown where he had done most of his observations. Sae sitting next to him, her face silvered and her hair practically giving off a light of its own in the star and moonlight. Clutching her gloved hand in the darkness as they watched. It was almost like a date. "I—that is, if it won't interfere with your work or Makoto's cram school?"

"Not at all. I'm done with trying to climb to the top of the SIU pit." She squeezed his hand. "And I have an expert to explain everything to me.

Just for a moment, Akira felt warm and safe. This was what his life should have been all along: a father figure who cared about him, friends he could argue with without anyone getting seriously hurt, a future before him, and a beautiful woman at his side who definitely liked him and maybe more.

So, of course, he had to screw that last part up.

"Who wants more coffee?" Sae raised a finger to Sojiro. "House blend please. And no comps this time. I'm starting to feel in debt."

Sojiro blinked at her. "Comps? What are you talking about?"

"Akira's been comping my coffee and curry for the last three weeks."

"Nobody has been getting comps in months, except for the kids when they're having one of their planning sessions. I'd know if they were. But the ledger matches the amount in the register every night."

No. Oh no. The coffee and curry were supposed to be his secret, a little act of generosity in gratitude for all Sae had done. Like the osabe gifts his grandparents had given out every year. And also because he liked her. Heat spread across his cheeks as he felt four pairs of eyes on him, and he buried his face in his hands.

"Akira?" Sae sounded like she was conducting an interrogation. "What did you do?"

"It's not like it's that expensive," he muttered.

"You've been paying for my coffee all this time?" Her voice rose higher and higher, a fury he had seen before, but never without drugs muddying his awareness. "Are you insane? You're going to have expenses. Room and board, student fees, textbooks, and who-knows-what else. You should be saving that money, not squandering it on me."

She drew back and stood. Her skin was pale and her eyes flashed with anger and something else. Fear. Why would she be afraid? He had given her the flowers and she had liked those, and a few meals here or there was nothing to the Treasure he found in the Metaverse. Wait. She was worried that these little gifts were somehow jeopardizing his future. Because she thought he was an ordinary high school student scraping by on what Lala or the flower shop paid him. He could soothe her fears and show her that the Metaverse was more than a world of the bizarre. "Wait right there. I can explain."

Before anyone could say anything, Akira mounted the stairs two at a time and made for the satchel he kept under his bed. His share of the loot—the money, jewels, and other treasure he had earned in the Metaverse. Most of it had been sacrificed to Igor and the twins, but there was enough there to make Sae feel better.

He returned and held up the satchel. Morgana squeaked, and Sae and Makoto's mouths hung half-open. "I'm not squandering any more than you would at a vending machine." He poured the contents onto the counter: bills, coins, silver and gold shavings, diamonds the size of his fingernail. "You're worried about my savings? Here's what a Phantom Thief can do."

Nobody said anything. Sojiro and Sae had both gone pale. Seconds ticked by, and the silence grew thick and heavy. Akira shifted uncomfortably. Why was everyone looking at him? "It's not like I stole it. Well, not from anything human. I don't know what Shadows do with money, but they're rich!"

Sae sank on to a stool. "You hold up aspects of the unconscious for money, get turned into animals, and nearly got your head taken off by my repressed jealousy." She looked from him to Makoto. "And this is normal for you?"

Makoto went to her. "It's not as dangerous or dramatic as it sounds." She winced. "Most of the time."

Sae breathed in and out. "I keep forgetting how utterly bizarre that world of yours is. I think I need to go home. Sort through financial records. Go over witness statements. Something like that."

"Sae?"

"Please, I think I just need to be somewhere with solid ground under my feet." She gave Akira a tight smile and took Makoto by the arm. "I'll see you soon. No more comps, okay?"

Akira watched them go, helpless. What the hell had just happened? He looked at the pile of jewels. It was great that he wasn't some helpless boy who had to mooch off her. Right? But Sae was gone and she was took Sae's place on the stool. "What did I do wrong?"

"Scared the hell out of me for one thing, kid." Sojiro's fingers hovered over the pile of treasure as if it was too-hot coffee. "I just about get my head around what you're doing and you make it even weirder. You're probably creeping your girlfriend out too."

"Not my girlfriend." As much as he might want her to be.

Sojiro gave him the laugh that Akira had hated back in April, the one that reminded him that he was a man of the world and Akira was just a brainy kid. "If you were six months older, she'd be ripping your clothes off. Even before this stuff with the shutdowns, I never saw her smile, and now she won't stop. It's spooky."

Rip his clothes off. Akira's mouth went dry at the mental image.

"May I offer you some advice as a guy who's been there and heard plenty of strange stories from Wakaba?" Akira nodded, and he continued. "Trust the lady. She likes you. Not the grand gestures or the diamonds." His expression softened. "Whenever I heard Wakaba talk about cognitive psience, it scared the living daylights out of me. There's this whole other world that can kill you, and you can do anything about it no matter how rich or smart you are. And a guy like Shido can use it to almost take over Japan. And it killed her."

"But I'm not Shido. We never changed the hearts of anyone who didn't deserve it." And even when Sae herself had been in their sights, Makoto have been certain that her sister would respond to persuasion without having heart stolen.

"It's still scary. Knowing somebody could give you a stroke the moment they felt like it. That kind of power imbalance is only romantic in stories. Or in those clubs in Shinjuku that I'm going to pretend you don't know about. Spending twenty or thirty thousand yen on a girl is only romantic when she knows about it and you let her spend some money back."

Akira raked his hand through his hair. The Metaverse had been scary to him, but that was because of the monsters trying to kill him and the sheer weirdness of the place. But it had become another world that could be analyzed with the same skills he used for the real one. He had forgotten how it must seem to those without Personas who were nonetheless good people.

"You're fine as you are, kid. Science geek and all. I don't know if you noticed, but that meteor shower thing made her eyes light up. Not the free coffee and curry."

Really? "I'm such an idiot."

Morgana sniffed behind him. Akira ignored him, took out his phone, and stopped. The app was still open, Handa's half-complete information staring back at him. His fingers hovered over the screen. He was supposed to ignore this, be a normal person who couldn't do anything more than listen when she complained about her boss? What if something happened? He would be forced to watch. Helpless. Again.

But if he took Handa's heart, the fear would return to her eyes. He would be another kind of Shido, giving her the world he thought she should want without her consent. Trust the lady, Sojiro said, as if it were that easy to trade the flashy trenchcoat and dress shirt for a hoodie. But he had to try. "Clear data."

He opened the texting app and found Sae's contact. _Where are you right now? I thought I'd come grovel._

Ten seconds passed. It felt like ten years. _Shibuya. Stopping for dinner first._ A pause. _You threw a lot at me today._

 _Hence the groveling. I_

 _What?_

 _I want you to feel safe with me. Are flowers still okay? Kind of traditional for groveling._

Another pause. _One condition: You let me try a few grand gestures of my own. Turnabout is fair play._

He could live with that.

 _December 11_

Makoto stumbled through the door of Leblanc on unsteady legs, her skin the color of ash and cradling Morgana in her arms. Sae slammed her laptop closed. Her sister never came alone to the café this late, and she had never seen Morgana without Akira. Iron bands circled her heart and her breath came hard and fast. No. No. Not again. "Makoto?" She wanted to cross the room and seize Makoto by the shoulders. "What's wrong? Where's Akira?"

"He said he wanted to be alone." She put Morgana on the floor and crossed the distance to Sae. "Akechi is dead," she said in a small voice. "Shido killed him."

"What? How?" She had dreamed of seeing her father's murderer face justice, but in her fantasies she had always been sitting at the prosecutor's chair with flashing eyes and a straight spine as the judge pronounced the sentence of death. She had always been able to talk with the worm, get answers about why and how he had been targeted. She was supposed to rip off her mask and discern Akechi's true nature once and for all.

Makoto told her: about Shido being Akechi's biological father, about Akechi's plan to raise him to the highest office in the country and then destroy him, and about the Akechi born from Shido's mind that had nearly killed them all, and who Akechi had sacrificed himself to stop. "He... I don't know what to think. He wasn't a good person, but he was showing some remorse right before the end. And I still don't know if he's the one who killed Dad. "

Sae sat back. A wall went up in her mind. On one side, was Sae, daughter, sister, friend, and lover who only wanted to tear Akechi to pieces for all those he had hurt. Even if most of his victims had been vile, there had been those like Isshiki and perhaps her dad who were good people. And even the monsters had left innocent family behind. On the other side was Niijima, prosecutor. His motives and history of abuse didn't exculpate him, but they were mitigating factors. If she had known, she could have cut a deal with him, even after the first murder. It was never the hitman the prosecutor's office really wanted, but his employer.

And, both sides said together, he had tried to save her life. He shouldn't be dead. It was a disaster for ever proving Shido was a murderer and it was a hellish fate she couldn't wish even on him. She guided Makoto to the space next to her and pulled her close. "It's okay to be confused. I am too." She stroked her hair. "The important thing is that you're safe, and that you have a route to Shido's Treasure."

"There is that." Makoto took a deep breath. "I'm more worried about Akira. He looked like he was about to pass out after the bulkhead went up, and he didn't want to talk with any of us, not even Morgana. "

Morgana meowed pitifully, and Makoto frowned. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

"What's not a good idea?" She could deal with a talking cat more easily than a dead detective.

"He thinks you should talk to Akira, try to calm him down. He thinks it might work better because you're, er, close."

Sae's skin prickled. Makoto was right; that was a horrible idea. Even with a healed heart, she had the emotional skills of a hedgehog. Being mutually besotted didn't give her an emotional answer key. She would probably send him running away screaming.

 _And yet, he's certainly comforted you enough. I thought you were tired of being in his debt?_

She squared her shoulders. Debt and more. What good did it do to tell him how wonderful he was if she abandoned him when someone at least thought she might help? There was a name for such people. Cowards. Leeches. She might as well grab a yellow rose and some playing cards. "Where would he go?"

"Sis?"

"The worst he can do is tell me to go away, and if the...person who knows him best thinks I should be with him now, then I should try. So where would he go?" Where would she go if the friend who betrayed her turned out to be more complex than she thought? Akira had hated Akechi even as he had mourned the lost friendship. How many times that she heard _damn Akechi._ Wait. Damn. Akira was Christian. After her mother had died, before she had been old to realize that she didn't know whether gods existed or not, she had gone to the local shrine for comfort. "Is there a church he might go to?"

"He took me to one in Kanda once, but I don't think he's exactly practicing." Makoto furrowed her brow. "He did say that it was a good place to think."

"Then that's where I'll be." _Maybe I should pray that this won't be the stupidest thing I've ever done._

Sae could count on one hand the number of times she had been in a church, and two of them had been to execute a search warrant. Our Lady of Perpetual Help was larger than most, with stained-glass windows and saints' icons out of a movie. She left her heels by the door and noticed a familiar pair of sneakers. So Akira was here. She wandered among the stillness. It was quiet, the kind of quiet where you were afraid to raise your voice, not out of fear, but because it would be unforgettably rude.

Ass she drew closer to the altar, someone did break that silence. A lone petitioner knelt in front of the altar, staring at an ornately-carved goldplated container. Akira. Light filtered through the stained glass, bathing him in red, blue, and gold. He looked smaller than normal, his shoulders slumped and his messy hair making him look young instead of roguish. He held a set of beads in his hand. "Eternal Father," he murmured. "I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the world. _Click._ "For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." _Click._ "For the sake of His sorrowful passion..."

Sae listened to him repeat the prayer a few more times. His voice was strained, the same way it was when he had first told her he wanted Akechi's lie to have been the truth. He crossed himself, rose, and saw her. "Sae?" he whispered, as if she were a ghost.

Sae bit her lip. Even half-dead in the interrogation room, Akira had possessed an animating fire, the arrogant defiance of someone rebelling against an unjust world. The very devil himself, the priest here might have said. Not now. His eyes were dull, his skin pale and drawn. There was nothing here to enthrall anyone. No cocky smirk and his lean muscle hiding beneath clothing that seemed suddenly too large for him.

And yet, Sae went to him. Her arms came around him with the same jerky movements she had managed so many times before, but this time she didn't stop there. She drew him close and brought his head to bury his face in her neck and held him as he shuddered. "Akechi's dead," he said over and over. "I killed him." His voice wasn't quite a sob.

"Hush," she whispered. "I'm here. It will be all right."Her hands ran stiffly up and down his back. Sae felt like she was playing another role, a mimic of what she had seen grieving families do at the station and courthouse, and she had no idea if she had learned the correct blocking. Her muscles seized, but she stayed where she was.

She had no idea how long it was before he stilled and looked at her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't impose on you like—" He made a feeble attempt to break the embrace.

Sae didn't let him. "To hell with imposing. You don't have to be Joker right now."

"Joker." He made a noise in the back of his throat. "Being Joker is the problem. The Phantom Thieves were supposed to be all about bringing the hammer down on people who had escaped justice. And me? I was a regular angel of vengeance. Except one of the guys I wanted to rot in hell actually really did like me. And he was starting to maybe do some good before that other thing showed up to give me _exactly_ what I said I wanted."

"You couldn't know. Even I didn't know about Shido until today."

He pulled her down with him into the pew. "That doesn't help. I didn't have all the facts but I pronounced judgment anyway. Because he hurt me, and because I've gotten so used to being judge and executioner. And now Akechi's dead and I don't know whether to beat him bloody or hug him. Except I can't do either." Another shuddering gasp as he gestured towards the altar. "I tried praying for him just now, but I don't know if it helped. I kinda stopped going after the arrest. And I...haven't been good."

 _Of course you're good. Any god who doesn't see that or won't answer a plea for mercy isn't worth worshiping._ "Do you know why the justice system considers confessions so important? Besides everybody involved wanting to keep their jobs?"

He shook his head.

"Because in theory, justice is supposed to be about reintegrating the offender into the community. Retribution is supposed to be about restoring the balance, not hurt feelings." It didn't work like that, but that was why she had wanted to be a prosecutor even before her dad had died.

"You think I should confess? Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. Oh, and by the way, I'm the Phantom and I never murdered anybody. Well, unless you count that part where wanting someone dead is the same thing."

She wondered if that dark, bitter humor had always been his, or if it was another scar from the arrest. "I think you, me, and the justice system all need to remember that mercy is a good thing." She swallowed. "That it's the only reason I'm sitting here."

"One of the few good things I ever did." He was silent for a long time, and when he spoke again, he sounded older. "I know you don't approve of the vigilante thing. Maybe you're right. Shido needs to be stopped, but after that...I want to do more things like what I did for you and Futaba. From now on I'll only change people who want to be changed."

"What?" She tried not to dwell too much on their differences. The law had failed, and he had filled the vacuum. "You're sure? "

"My judgment's not any better than anybody else's. I think I'll leave trial and sentence to the crusading prosecutors with honest hearts. I think I'll sleep better." He smiled and it was small, but real. "Congratulations, Prosecutor, you just did what the entire police force and thirty million yen couldn't do."

"I'll give myself a raise." She stroked his face and smoothed his hair from his forehead. "As long as you don't lose yourself, I'll consider that reward enough."

"Now, who's the charming one? I'm just a too-smart kid who got burned playing God."

"That's not true. You matter." She kept stroking his face, earning a different kind of shudder from him. Sae shivered in return. When this had begun, she had thought they were just another lonely boy and lonelier professional eager for any comfort society would allow them. But they weren't. She wanted to give him every good thing, not to repay him, but because he was Akira. She wanted to touch him so much more than she allowed herself. She wanted this tenderness without grief mixed in. She wanted.

No. Desire alone wouldn't hold her here. She loved him. Somehow, when she wasn't looking, he had slipped through the walls around her heart and made himself at home. "You matter immensely."

"And so do you." It was his turn to cup her cheek. "The meteor shower is in two days. Do you still want to...?

"Yes. If you're up to it."

"I don't know if I deserve it, but since I haven't been hit by a thunderbolt, I'll take every moment I have from now on." He pulled back from her and stood. He still looked small, but the color was back in his cheeks. "And I think I will go to confession after all. Should be interesting." He gave a last look at the altar. "And maybe offer a few more prayers for someone who deserves it more than me." He bowed his head. "Have mercy on us and on the whole world."

It was a horrible thing, to love the brilliant man who stood between Japan and tyranny, who believed so ardently in God and in her goodness, all while doubting his own. Odds were they would both end up with a bullet in their heads, but that had always been true. As for the heartbreak, well she had been safe behind her walls of envy, rage, and bitterness—safe and rotting from the inside. She would hold on to him and to this for as long as she could and be grateful.


	9. Chapter 9

_I want to apologize for how long the last chapter took-forgot about the holiday. On the other hand, I did spend the weekend writing an M-rated one shot sequel, should there be any interest._

* * *

 _December 13_

"You can't quit!" Morgana paced the length of the attic before rounding on him. "What about the Phantom Thieves? The justice you were going to bring?"

"I'm not quitting." Akira shoved his hands in his pockets. He had been dreading this conversation since the day in the church. "But if I could have been so wrong about Akechi, what else could I be wrong about? You were the one warning me about taking Handa's heart without permission!"

"Without Ms. Niijima's permission when she had specifically told you not to do it! What's gotten into you?"

 _Guilt, the grace of a good confession, realizing how empty revenge is, how close I came to being another Akechi, take your pick._ "Look, I just can't do it anymore. Once we break this conspiracy and bring Shido to justice, I'm sticking to helping people with mental illnesses and talking Shadows into changing their own hearts. I want to put some good in the world, not just take evil out of it."

"And Mementos? We still haven't reached the bottom." Morgana's tone was angry, but his tail swished slowly back and forth and his head was bowed like it was when he was sad. Interesting. Akira had told Morgana first not only because he was his best friend, but because he had the least to gain from them changing the hearts of evil people. Hell, if he hadn't decided the Thieves were actually his friends, he probably would have stayed gone and looked for someone else to help him figure out who and what he was.

Oh. Akira slid off the bed and knelt to look Morgana in the eye. "You're my best friend. I'll help you reach the depths of Mementos if it takes the rest of our lives." He stretched out his hand.

Morgana stepped forward and allowed Akira to give him the short, gentle strokes that he liked best. He purred. "So you're not throwing me over because of Ms. Niijima?"

Akira stopped. "What?"

Morgana looked almost embarrassed. "She works for bunch of people who wouldn't like us even if the world wasn't rotten and only puts up with what you do because of Shido. Both of your faces light up whenever you see each other. You buy her flowers every time I turn around, and now you come back from talking with her and say you don't want to still hearts anymore. You _are_ besotted. More than besotted."

"That's not why I want to quit, but yeah, I'm in love with her." The church had shattered either desire or will to deny it. Sae had seen him break the other day. Not just physically like during and after the interrogation when he had still been so sure of himself despite everything, but really break. No flash, no brilliance, nothing that someone like her would find attractive, but she had stayed. She had held him. He had discarded all his masks and still felt safe. "But you and me, that's not going to change for anybody."

"I… I can't even talk to her. You've got this huge part of your life and all I can do is overhear. I always figured that if you fell for somebody, it'd be one of the girls."

"I don't think we get a choice about these things." He scooped Morgana into his lap and scratched him under the chin and behind the ears, did everything he could think of to show Morgana he loved him without getting mushy. He was right about one thing. Sae occupied an ambiguous place within the Thieves, one of them but without their powers. Someone grateful for those he could save but someone always aware of how close she had come to losing some essential part of herself or even her life. "Maybe once things calm down a little, the three of us can brainstorm something."

The shopkeeper's bell rang, and Morgana nuzzled him. "Speaking of your girlfriend...let's do some stargazing."

Akira descended the stairs to meet the Niijima sisters, and stared. Makoto wore the dark blue coat and dark shirt she always wore when it was cold, but Sae... She had exchanged her black blazer and turtleneck for a violet sweater, intricately-patterned, leather gloves that were so dark that they were almost black, a matching scarf, and a long overcoat. Her hair was loose, and she looked younger, lighter. A small smile played across her lips. "What's the matter? Never seen someone dressed for winter nights before?"

"You look different." His brain ground to a halt as her smile deepened, and even Makoto was hiding a laugh behind her hand. "Nice different." Oh, wonderful. He was supposed to be teaching her about meteors and he could barely string a sentence together. _Nice. Hot. Gorgeous. Exquisite. I want to run my fingers through your hair and kiss you just like this._ On second thought, maybe it was a good thing that the words wouldn't come.

"Truly suave, my friend. You will have her swooning at your eloquence."

Heat spread across Akira's face as a small laugh escaped Makoto. "I'm just used to the blazer is all!"

"Stop teasing him, Morgana," Makoto said, but she was still laughing.

Sae looked between the three of them. "Should I be grateful that I can't understand that?"

"Probably." Akira strode forward, and looked around for some—any—change of subject. He clapped his hands together. "So neither of you have seen a meteor shower before, right?"

"Just pictures in the textbook," Makoto said.

"Well, it will really get going around nine or ten o'clock. The moon will obscure the view, but we should be able to see a few meteors. Don't worry about keeping your eyes on Gemini. The meteors just appear to radiate from there. You'll be able to see them from anywhere in the sky."

Makoto's smile was warm instead of amused. "You really love this stuff, don't you?"

"I do. I wanted to spend my life studying it once upon a time." He twined his fingers with Sae and squeezed and was rewarded with a pleasant pinkness in her cheeks. "And I've been reminded that I still can."

Morgana looked at them. "I think I'm beginning to understand," he said softly. Then, a little louder. "Come on, you besotted idiots. I want to see this meteor shower thing."

Akira pulled away and glared at Morgana. Oh yes, he wanted to kiss Sae right there, make her gasp, and be so insufferably cute about it that Morgana would shut up forever lest he get cat diabetes. He didn't. He wasn't Kaneshiro or Handa, taking what he couldn't have and jeopardizing the career Sae had worked so hard to build. Especially when she was the only one with the ability and will to prosecute Shido. They could give presents, hold hands, hug, even caress as long as they didn't call it dating and kept within the rules. Like particles that changed just by being observed, their romance hinged on what couldn't be said. In six months, it would be all right, but in six months he would be sent home.

 _Home. This is my home._ "Let's go."

Sae must have brought him to the café in her car, but he didn't remember it. It was a sleek, black town car built more for reliability than speed or performance, but the seats smelled of real leather. Not as nice as what he had seen from some of their targets but definitely a vehicle for someone on the cusp of having true wealth and power.

Makoto took Morgana in her arms. "Let's take the back seat. More room to stretch out." She just looked at Akira with that smug student council president look that had made him want to punch her the first time they met. Why did even bother? At least Sae was looking just as flustered as he felt. He slid into the passenger seat all the same. If he couldn't have everything he wanted, at least he was a thief good at stealing more than the world was willing to give him.

"So," Morgana said after a long moment, "since our lives are in Ms. Niijima's hands yet again for the duration of the trip, I want to know more about her. Hobbies, star sign, favorite color?"

Akira translated. "Purple, Capricorn, and it seems that my hobby is trying not to have a heart attack because the supernatural has wormed its way into my life." She softened. "Not that it's been all bad. Tell me, does Okumura really use a grenade launcher? And did Kitagawa really spend your entire vacation trying to paint lobsters?"

"Yep." And so the conversation went as he, Morgana, and Makoto told Sae all the stories of the year that Akira had been forced to omit the first time. Walking Futaba around Shujin (Sae had winced almost imperceptibly), learning to play Gun About from Oda ("Wait, you learned how to use guns from an arcade game?") and traveling with Yusuke into Mementos to capture both the darkness and nobility of the human heart. Akira rested his hand on her knee. "The Metaverse isn't always scary."

The narrow streets and cramped buildings of the city gave way to the rice fields and trees of the country. The tension in Akira's back eased. This had been his life once upon a time, and he could feel some of the outer layers he had acquired since the arrest slough off like dead skin. A little less jaded thief, a little more eager scholar.

Akira had picked a grassy hillock a kilometer outside the nearest town as their viewing spot. He helped Sae and Makoto lug the blankets from the trunk of the car and spread them out. The cold was sharp against his cheeks, but the winds were still and the sky was as clear as any junior astronomer could ask for. He sat, legs sprawled out, Morgana cradled in his lap and Sae and Makoto on either side of him.

He had forgotten how beautiful and bright the night sky could be without light pollution to mar it. Thousands upon thousands of stars bringing light from millions of kilometers away using nothing more than electromagnetism and the receptors in his eye. He watched as Sae, who must have stars before, but clearly not for a long time, stared. Not as dramatic as the Metaverse, but there were flashes of the sublime in the mundane if you knew where to look.

Even Makoto seemed impressed. "This is way better than Waikiki."

Something wistful flickered across Sae's face. "I imagine that trip was good for more than a recommendation from the school." She looked at Akira. "You're the professor. Explain to me what I'm looking at. Why is there a meteor shower tonight?"

"Basically, you're looking at the debris from the breakup of a minor planet/asteroid. 3200 Phaeton, to be specific. We used to think that the showers were caused Earth pulling bits of debris from the object of origin, but it's more likely that it's from infrequent disintegration. Especially when the object in question is not a comet, like with Geminids. And—" Akira cut off as Makoto, Sae, and Morgana stared at him. He was doing it again. "I sound like Yusuke."

Morgana snickered. "Maybe the two of you can team up again for another painting."He looked at Sae. " _Love by Starlight_ or something. You know, I used to think that the Phantom was what you were, but I'm starting to believe that it's just one of the things you can do. Is that why you want to scale back on the heart-stealing? So you can be the other parts of yourself?"

"Something like that. Sorry for the geeking out."

"Don't be sorry," Sae said. "It's been a very long time since I've been able to learn something for the sake of learning it instead of for a case." Her hand rested against his. "If I didn't want you to 'geek out,' I wouldn't have brought you here."

"Didn't you say the meteors could appear anywhere in the sky?" Makoto asked. "Maybe we'd have better luck if we split up and looked in different directions?" Akira couldn't quite tell in the darkness, but he thought she might have that knowing look back on her face. "Come on, Morgana."

Some days he wondered why they bothered playing by the rules. He scooted closer and put an arm around Sae. She sighed, light and pleased and leaned her head on his good shoulder. Akira held himself very still, enjoying the warmth through his shirt and afraid he would break the spell if he spoke. Sae was as beautiful in the moonlight as he'd thought she'd be, all silver. Her breath was quiet and even, peaceful.

"Did you talk to the others about the Metaverse?" she murmured, sounding sleepy.

"Just Morgana. I think he gets it a little, but I think he worries that he only has a place here as long as I'm the Phantom. Wish I knew how to tell him that I love him for being him and not for what he can do."

"Tell him that, if it's any comfort, I wish I could understand his world better. As much as you all try to explain, I'd trade it all for seeing it for five minutes and hearing him speak. As long as I didn't get attacked by Shadows. That I leave to you." She shifted to look up at him. "Are you really okay with not taking vengeance on the corrupt?. I'm not going to pretend I'll ever be comfortable with what you do, but don't give it up for me. Don't do anything just for me."

"I'm not. You remember how you said everything got clouded for you after your Dad died? I think things were starting to get clouded for me." And he would have no Shadow that those he loved could convince to see reason. "To tell you the truth, as long as I can help people and wear the great shirts and trenchcoat, I think I'm good." He smiled at her. "That'd be the nonnegotiable, Prosecutor: if you asked me to give up the dress shirt. I look pretty good in that world. Thieves have to be stylish."

"You could buy the shirt. Astronomers can be stylish too."

"And lawyers can rub shoulders with the supernatural. I think we both a lot more than we thought we were." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. There had to be a way. No more having a life with Sae, astronomy, and his faith on one side and his friends and the Metaverse on the other. His life here would end in three months, but those three months should be undivided. "Futaba brought you into your Palace once. Would you be willing to go back, with me and Morgana?"

She pulled back slightly to look at him in surprise. "Would that be all right? The other me tried to kill you."

"I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be okay. You're the master of the Palace, and you know I'm not a threat. Leviathan shouldn't hurt us." He wondered what Sae's Shadow was like now, what exactly happened to the Shadows of good people that didn't become Personas. "It'd be a scientific expedition. Like going to the North Pole."

"Didn't people die doing that?" Sae took a deep breath. "I'm sick of needing a translator for Morgana, and I'm not going to be the coward I was before. Thing's are going to be crazy once you take Shido's heart, but maybe after things calm down...yes I'd like that very much. Her head returned to his shoulder, and her breath was warm on Akira's skin and made him shiver. "I trust you."

Akira stroked her hair and forced down the lump in his throat.

"Meteor!" Makoto called.

Then they were on their feet, racing just in time to see light streak across the sky. Bits of rock made beautiful by the atmosphere. Yes, beauty was everywhere if you had eyes to see. He had just forgotten that for a while. How could anything that made him remember be bad luck? "Some cultures actually wish on falling stars. Make a wish!"

"To find out who I am!"

"For Shido to be captured and to know if he wanted Dad dead."

"For us all to be safe." Sae looked at him. "And you? What do you wish for?"

 _To stay like this forever._ Akira took her hand. "It's a secret."


	10. Chapter 10

_December 15_

It was snowing: not the feathery white of postcards, but a cold slush that made it hard to drive and harder to walk. Sae hoped it wasn't an omen as she entered the airsoft shop. Rows upon rows of gold-colored modelguns in perfect compliance with the law stood behind glass cases alongside racks of magazines with titles like _Warrior of Fortune._ A warning tension spread across Sae's skin. She was sworn to uphold the law, but what she was about to do was ambiguous at best. "Mr. Iwai?"

The lone man in the store glared at her. He was rough, unshaven, and chewing on something that was legal but probably shouldn't have been. The kind of man her dad would've warned her to stay away from before he had despaired of her dating at all. And yet, according to Akira, he was a better surrogate parent than she had turned out to be. "What do you want?" His gaze hardened as he noticed her lapel badge. "Everything's legal here, Prosecutor."

Sae took a deep breath. She could do this. Makoto and Akira's lives might depend on her doing this. She stepped closer to the counter. "Everything out here yes, but not the back room." She leaned closer and lowered voice. "We have a mutual friend in common: Akira Kurusu. And he needs the most realistic weapons you have before tomorrow night."

His gaze flickered in surprise for the briefest of moments before returning to gruff indifference. He searched her face and Sae willed herself not to flinch. "If you're shitting me...that kid's got some powerful people after him."

"I'm aware. And there's nothing I want more in the world than to see them get their due and to make sure he survives it. But I'm not the one who customizes guns for him. I don't know how much he's told you about that other world, but the day after tomorrow he's going to face something very powerful. And I want to help." She took her wallet from her purse. "In any way I can."

Seconds ticked by as he considered. _Please, let me help. Everyone I care about in this world is risking their lives, and all I can do is sit at home and wait._ She still had debts to repay. Not just for freeing her from Leviathan's shackles, but for Akira naming the stars for her, for reminding her that the world was so much grander than the SIU offices and the courthouse. For believing she embodied the edelweiss that was beginning to cover the living room. She didn't have it in her to give him flowers, but she could do something. He was a samurai of sorts, sworn to the freedom of Japan instead of a daimyo, but for every mounted warrior, there were a hundred people providing support. _Let me be one, just this once._

Iwai nodded. "Try not to trip. And if something happens to that kid, well, I still know how to hurt people. Got it?'

"We understand each other perfectly." Here was someone else on Akira's side. They weren't fighting this battle alone.

Any illusion that Iwai was an ordinary shop owner vanished when he led Sae into the back room. It looked like nothing so much as the police armory crossed with a museum of the medieval. Knives, axes, brass knuckles, katanas, even a frighteningly realistic-looking grenade launcher. And handguns. There staring back at her was her father's service weapon: the UHF 1707, symbol of Japan's elite detectives.

 _Sae was twelve and much too old for her dad to pick her up and twirl her around. He didn't seem to care "Where's your sister? Daddy has the best news ever!"_

 _She fought him, halfheartedly. Dad had looked so tired lately, but right now he was smiling like he had right after Makoto was born. "She's taking a nap." She squirmed free and looked up at him expectantly. "What kind of news?"_

 _"Daddy's getting a promotion! You're looking at the TMPD's newest detective." He gestured to encompass all of the too-small, too-squalid apartment. "All this is a thing of the past. You'll see. Let's go tell your mother."_

Iwai's voice brought Sae back to the present. "You like that, do you? I guess that thing would scare the crap out of pretty much anybody. Should fit the kid's hand pretty well. He likes handguns for himself."

"How much?" Of course it would be Akira. Her faith in justice died with her father, perhaps by Shido's demand. This was the closest she could come to the lady giving the ronin her family's ancestral weapon and demanding vengeance. She hadn't been able to locate any of her father's things after he'd died; she'd been to disgusted at him throwing his life away. But now, maybe the old ghosts could truly rest.

"Being a prosecutor pays well. And something for the rest of them too."

Half an hour later, she and Iwai lugged an unmarked cardboard box filled with model weapons that would have given her superiors a heart attack even if they weren't in bed with Shido. She drove toward Leblanc, a kilometer under the speed limit and obeying all traffic regulations. Tomorrow night her masquerade would end, but not a moment before.

The box was heavier than anything containing something that didn't fire real bullets had a right to be, and Sae sweated and huffed as she carried it. Akira sat at the booth nearest the door, engrossed in his problem sets. She must have made a horrible racket because he looked up and turned around and his eyes went wide. He was on his feet in a moment, rushing to hold the door for her as she staggered inside. "Sae? What's that? Let me help."

"I'm not the one with a bad shoulder." She grunted and plunked the box onto the counter. "Since this is the last time I'll see you before you face Shido, I thought I would make myself useful."

He opened the box, and Sae held her breath. These were quality weapons, and Iwai assured her that they were far better than anything Akira had purchased, but she still understood so little of the Metaverse and what was useful.

His eyes widened. "Wow." He picked up the punch-daggers nearest the top. They gleamed red like blood in the light of the café. He turned them over, not quite touching the edge as he inspected the blade. "Wow. You could gouge a Garuda's eyes out with this thing. Well, if they had eyes." He looked at her, and a flush spread across his cheeks. "You bought all this? I—I cant... "I'll pay you back."

"Now you know how I felt about the coffee and curry." She dared to put a hand on his arm and turned him towards her. "I'd buy out the entire store if it came to that. All that matters is that you come home safe. All of you." She dug to the bottom of the box and pulled out the handgun. "This is yours. Give Shido a bullet from me."

Akira was too busy staring at the weapon to hear her. He took the stock gingerly, as if it were hot coals. "This is a cop's weapon. Your dad had something kind of like this, right? Makoto showed me a picture."

"It's the weapon of those who fight for justice." Tightness seized her chest, which was ridiculous. Thousands had wielded this pistol before her dad and thousands had after. But Iwai had been right: it fit Akira's grip as if it had been made for him. He held it, finger off the trigger and pointing away from either of them, like he'd been practicing gun safety his whole life. "It suits you But yes, Dad had something like that."

"Thank you. Thank you so much." His voice was rougher, older, and even though he wasn't wearing his glasses, she couldn't read his expression. "I promise I'll be worthy of it. On this and any excursions to come." The air was thick and heavy, as if a contract was being signed and executed, or an oath being sworn before a real god. He put the gun down and came to her. "And you? You'll keep yourself safe tomorrow too?"

"Oh, I imagine I'll be blamed for you escaping custody, but Handa and his friends will be too busy gloating to put the pieces together. The stupid, naïve girl who let her heart get stolen and can't remember a thing. A con to rival one of yours, and they already half-believe it anyway." Sae had tried very hard not to think about what would happen if they didn't. It didn't quite work. Shido's yakuza lackeys who knew how to make death linger, how to so fill the mind with pain that the victim would beg for release. Some of the bodies the police had fished out of the sea had only been identifiable by their dental records. And there would be extra horrors for a woman who had dared overstep her place.

The thought kept her up some nights.

Akira must have been thinking the same thing because his eyes darkened as he stroked her cheek. His fingers were wire-tense, and he shook with a barely suppressed rage. "Not tame" she had thought the first time she had spoke to him after the interrogation, but that wasn't quite right. He was safe for her and for anyone who meant well. But to those who threatened those he loved, he would be more terrifying than another atom bomb.

"If anyone lays a finger on you," he whispered, "I will k-" He froze and relaxed with visible effort. "No. I promised no more vengeance. If they hurt you, I will go into the Metaverse, and I will wring every secret they have from their miserable Shadows. Every front company. Every bank account. Every crime. And I will destroy them."

She really ought to have made a joke about how that was a more effective threat anyway, anything to ease the tension stretched taut between them. There had been an anime about Western fairytales when she was a child: princesses cursed to dance every night, princes who had the face of beasts but were far kinder than the boys who teased Sae for being too tall and too opinionated. She had dreamed of having a prince like that, of not having to choose between romance and ambition, until she had learned that that was an even more outlandish fairytale. Except maybe there was such thing as princes and knights among the twisting streets of Yongenjaya, only they wore hoodies or trenchcoats instead of shining armor.

"I will be safe," she said, her voice shaky. "I promise. And after tomorrow, you won't be a dead man anymore."

"I won't, will I?" He slid his across Sae's cheek, down the line of her jaw and to her throat, leaving blossoms of heat in his wake. "I'll have to go back to school. And you won't have to pretend to be an idiot at work anymore."

"You'll get to go back to school, and my real work will begin." The heat bubbling within her wasn't just from Akira's touch. He would rebuild the life Shido had shattered, ace his exams, and prepare to work for JAXA or discover a comet, or wherever that brilliant mind of his took him. She would finally serve the justice she had sworn to uphold. It would be a slog that would mean more than one night stuck in her office with tax returns, but Shido and his conspirators would learn at last that Japan was a nation of laws and not men.

"And you? You'll be able to work at the SIU? You won't need to come to Leblanc?" Akira still stroked her, but his voice was flat.

"I'll always need to come to Leblanc. The coffee is wonderful." She smiled. "And you're here."

"I'm here? Oh." He blinked. "I wasn't quite sure that you would need…chivalry once you got back to your regular life. Well, hopefully a happier version of your regular life. You know what I mean." His hand stilled. "This is so much easier when I'm faking it."

She stroked Akira's face in turn. His cheeks were more hollow than they had been in May, and there were lines around his eyes that she didn't remember being there. Soldier. Samurai. Knight. Too many military titles for someone so young. The way he was looking at her now, like he still half expected her to vanish into the air... Grief encircled her heart. It wasn't fair. He deserved so much better than the hand he'd been dealt. And she wanted so much more than she was permitted. Shouldn't they have so much more than breadcrumbs? "I will always want chivalry from you," Sae said. "For as long as you want to give it."

He exhaled, long and shuddering. "You know, if you'd told me last March that I'd never want to leave the city, I wouldn't have believed it. Now, I just want the next three months to last forever."

Three months. Sometimes, Sae could almost forget that there were more time limits in the world than ones that dealt with calling cards. Her grip tightened. "You had friends before who are probably missing you a great deal and just can't say it. School somewhere a little less chaotic than Shujin." The words felt like marbles in her mouth, what she was supposed to say as the responsible adult. "And once you graduate, you'll be back that April. University of Tokyo and all that."

"No, not April. March. I'm going to be on the first train back as soon as the graduation ceremony is over. Everything I want is here. Everyone I love is here." He covered her hand with his and pressed her palm into his cheek. "So you can't get yourself killed tomorrow night."

Time slowed. From the time she was a child, Sae had learned how to tease apart ambiguities. How to find meaning in what was and wasn't said and how. An important skill for anyone but especially a prosecutor and especially a woman caught in a chaste affair with the seventeen-year-old boy responsible for the fate of Japan. Everyone he loved was in Tokyo, so she couldn't die.

He loved her. All the breath left her lungs. Akira Kurusu loved her. She wasn't—maybe had never been—pining after something she couldn't have. The prosecutor and the Phantom. It would be a scandal even if he weren't a high school student. It was one thing for bored civil servants to flirt with him for money. But this...

The flush became a deep crimson as Akira backed away. "I'm sorry. This stuff with Shido has me really stressed. I would never-"

Akira loved her, and he really might die the day after tomorrow. She might die before that. And she was supposed to cower before convention and let him languish? "Don't be sorry." Sae said. She put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him.

It wasn't like what she thought it would be. He smelled of coffee. He tasted of coffee, the full rich kind that they served for breakfast at the Wilton. His lips were chapped from the cold outside. He held himself perfectly still, neither pulling away nor responding. Sae stopped and good sense reasserted itself. She was a very much adult prosecutor with more than a career to lose. He had even more on the line. They were in his guardian's café. What was she thinking? What was she thinking? "My apolo—"

He kissed her back and Sae forgot all about apologies. Akira was a scientist even in this, varying the pressure and learning what made her gasp. His hands ran the length of her back, tracing the curve of her spine as if it were a constellation. Sae matched him movement for movement. If she was going to break the rules, she was going to _break_ them. There was lean muscle under his shirt. Another hand tangled in that messy hair of his. She wanted to touch and explore until she knew every centimeter. She felt giddy, greedy for every touch he was giving her. When she finally pulled back, they were both red-faced and breathless.

Her forehead rested against his. The only sound in the café was their ragged breathing. She waited for guilt to overtake her. It didn't. Sae was warm and happy and unafraid for the first time that night. "So that's what it's like to misbehave," she said.

"I guess it is." Akira sounded as dazed as she felt. So much for the dashing phantom thief. "You liked me doing that?"

"Yes. Oh yes."

"Then..." He took her hand and this time he didn't release it as soon as he squeezed. "What do we do about that?"

What were they going to do about it? She knew what she wanted: to kiss him again as soon as possible. But that wasn't a plan. Her dad's murder had buried what little interest she'd had in dating along with all other desires besides material success. And Akira was no ordinary suitor. "I won't do anything to jeopardize your future."

"Then we...keep it discreet? Sort of like what we're doing now, but more fun. Sit the others down once Shido's taken care of, wait for them to stop freaking out, and then we play it by ear and enjoy ourselves as much as we can for the next three months."

Three months. There was still no future here, at least not right now; but it was so nice to be wanted for who she was instead of as an accessory and to want him in return. "For as long as we can."

"For as long as we can," Akira repeated and grinned, a roguish Joker sort of grin that made Sae's breath catch. "I get to teach the prosecutor about sneaking around with boys."

She made a noise in the back of her throat, trying her best to sound offended. "I know plenty about sneaking around with boys. I even did it. Once." This was going to be fun. More than fun. He was precious to her in a way no one had been in years. Sae sobered and burrowed her nose into the soft, safe warmth of his neck. "Be careful. After all, everything I love is in Tokyo too."

"I will. I've got too much to come back to." He kissed her again, an almost-chaste brush of his lips. "I should be getting to bed. Big day tomorrow for all of us. But when this is over..."

Sae laughed, and a little more of the weight on her shoulders fell away. When this was over, they would get to live.

 _December 16_

There was a bouquet on Sae's desk that morning. The usual edelweiss but also peonies and forget-me-nots. There was no card, but she hardly needed one. She wondered how he had managed it.

She smelled the flowers and smiled. Competence, courage, and true love. Not a bad combination to pin your hopes on. "Good luck, Professor," she whispered to the air and prepared for her greatest performance.


	11. Chapter 11

_December 17_

Akira raised the handgun and squeezed the trigger. His mind was as cool and clear as a lake. _For me, for Okumura, for the people of Japan, let justice be done._ The bullets hit home, and oily black smoke encircled the Shadow. It fell onto its knees, once more looking almost indistinguishable from the real Shido. His face was mottled with cuts and bruises. Just like Akechi had been.

"How could I lose?" There was real grief in his voice. "What have I done? Oh, Goro..."

"Justice will always prevail." Makoto strode forward and knelt to look him in the eye. Her voice was quiet and deadly "You will atone, but before that there's just one thing I want to know: did you have my father killed?"

"You'll have to narrow it down. I killed many fathers."

"Shigeki Niijima, three years ago." Makoto blinked behind her mask. "You killed so many people that you don't even remember?"

"A simple proposition when your only desire is power." He coughed. "Niijima, yes. I remember. He was inconveniencing a major financial backer, and I wanted to see just how far Goro's powers extended. I'm sorry, child. I'll face whatever justice you deem appropriate. There would be a certain poetry in killing me here, don't you agree?"

The punch daggers on Makoto's fists gleamed in the light. Her father's murderer. Sae's father's murderer. Never mind what Shido had done to him; he had destroyed the lives of two people Akira loved best in the world because a detective was inconvenient. _You shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth._ But Makoto clenched her fist. "Oh no. The Phantom Thieves don't kill. You will pay for your crimes in a court of law and everyone will know what you did."

"I accept."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ryuji put a hand on Akira's shoulder. "You owe our leader an apology for screwing him over."

The Shadow turned his gaze to Akira. He did look remarkably like the real Shido, only he had never seen Shido so utterly broken. "I acknowledge that I had you arrested on false charges. I am truly sorry, but I won't insult you by asking you to forgive me."

Akira had dreamed of this moment for months, even before he had known the name of the man who had intended to ruin him. He had wanted to tear Shido to pieces while recounting every moment of his suffering in loving detail. But he had left his rage behind in the church and in the café and all that remained were the demands of justice. What did you do with a Shadow that seemed truly repentant? Certainly a lot sorrier than Sae's had seemed at the time? Could Shido be capable of the same kind of reformation? Did he even deserve it?

Maybe it wasn't a matter of deserving. Maybe it never had been. "You meant to destroy me, but it seems like it all turned out for the best. Get up. We're leaving."

"Hey, buddy? Aren't you forgetting the Treasure? He's got to pay."

"Oh, he will. I bet Sae will make sure he spends every day of his life in jail. But I'd prefer he actually atone with all of himself. Maybe he'll be able to do himself some good." Contrition was the first step to reconciliation, if Shido had the good sense to realize it. "Return to the real Shido with that remorse."

The Shadow recoiled. "You're not going to take the Treasure? Thank you! I'll make the most of this, I swear. "

The ground rumbled beneath Akira's feet, and masonry fell from the walls. He looked up to where the ship's wheel still floated in midair. A Palace collapsing with its Treasure intact shouldn't be possible. Shido's voice filled the legislative chamber, echoing from all around them. "No, I won't have it! I won't be defeated by a bunch of damn brats! I'd rather die!"

Akira whipped his head around to look at Morgana. "What's going on?"

"A Palace will fall if the Treasure is stolen—or if the host dies. The real Shido would rather die than confess his crimes."

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," Ryuji said. "Let's get out of here."

Right. Living to see Sae again would be a good thing. But first… He extended his hand as the ship's wheel floated down to him. If the real Shido died without confessing his crimes at all, he would be a martyr to his evil ideology and someone would rise to take his place after he won the election. Everything Akira had done would be for nothing. He gave a last look to where the Shadow knelt on the floor. "I'm sorry."

"No less that I deserve, boy. It's time I face my just punishment." He shimmered and was gone and then Akira had no more time to think before he was running for his life.

He returned to the real world and to the feeling of something cold and crunchy under his feet. Snow, real snow. Large, fat flakes that stuck to the ground and practically begged him to make snowballs. Tokyo had been bathed in white while he was gone. Ice coated the tips of the wrought-iron fence. Nature itself celebrating the city's freedom, his victory. His shoulder ached from cold, but what did it matter? He'd won!

He'd won. Oh, God. He'd _won_.Shido would go on live TV and confess everything he'd done. Japan would no longer be seduced by his illusions of national glory. His conspiracy would be broken. Akira would go back to school and kiss Sae senseless and... Joy and relief bubbled through him and he trembled. His vision wavered and his eyes were wet with tears. "Sorry."

"It's okay, bro. You beat the bad guy, so you're allowed to get all emotional. It's like a rule of hero-ing."

"Thanks, Ryuji." He wiped his eyes. "I meant what I said back there:: if the arrest was the only way I could meet you guys, then I'm glad it happened."

"Hey, no mushy stuff now." He ruffled Akira's hair. "Let's see the Treasure!"

Akira put a hand in his pocket, and pulled out a small, golden chrysanthemum badge. "Nobody's going to give much for a legislator's pin. Looks like this celebration is going to be on the cheap." During that celebration he would tell the others about how he was planning to restrict the activities as Joker. He would take Sae by the hand and tell them about the kiss. He really hoped Makoto didn't deck him for that.

And how great was it that those were his biggest problems? His cellphone buzzed. "I'm back, kid." Sojiro sounded tired but unharmed. "They just let me go all of a sudden. Does that mean that you stopped that bastard?"

"Yeah, it does." He'd won the war and lost nothing in return. Finally. "I'll be right home. Sojiro's okay."

Makoto's phone went off. "It's Sis. She threw the investigators off the trail and she's leaving work early because of the weather. She wanted to know if it's okay if she stops by Leblanc for a cup of coffee on the way home."

Futaba snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure the coffee what she wants. Akira, are you ever going to finish your romance sidequest?"

Oh, if only she knew. "Let's go to Leblanc. We'll have the real party tomorrow, but right now I just want to make sure everything's okay. "

"Sojiro's always okay. And your girlfriend's pretty scary." Futaba sobered. "It's over. It's really over. Mom..."

"Father..."

"Dad..."

Makoto, Haru, and Futaba bowed their heads. Shido had killed or destroyed so many people during his rise to the top, left so many grieving families. Even now that he was defeated, it would take years for the scars to fade, if they ever did. At least now, justice could be done in the light of day. He palmed the legislator's pin and held it out to Makoto. "Do you want to tell Sae about Shido and your dad or should I?"

"We'll tell her together." Her eyes were hard. "I appreciate you trying to be noble, but I hope Shido rots in prison. Or hangs."

By the time the train deposited them in Yongenjaya, the streets were a veritable winter wonderland. Shops had been closed early. Most of the adults appeared to be safely inside and warm, but a few enterprising children too young to be in school were stomping around in the snow and screeching. Just like home. Akira had spent more than one winter building snowmen like he saw on TV—or pelting bullies who thought the astronomy thing was just a little too nerdy even for an honor student. But right now he just wanted to walk through the door and be reunited with the man who might as well been his father and the woman he'd fallen in love with almost without noticing.

Leblanc was a blessed warmth. And they were there, Sojiro and Sae, looking worried but not at all injured. He laughed again and wished he could hug them. But Sojiro had never been much of a hugger and Sae...well, he had promised to be discreet. He was starting to regret that. Her eyes lit up and she smiled. Not the small, private one that he was used to, but an actual grin that made her look young. "You got him. You really got him."

"Yep." It took every ounce of self-control he possessed not to forget everything he had told her about sneaking around and kiss her right there. But he was a gentleman thief, so instead he slammed the legislator's pin down on the booth before her like a knight presenting the head of a dragon to the princess. "You've been avenged." He and Makoto looked at each other, and she nodded. "Akechi did kill your Dad. Shido confessed to everything."

She exhaled. "I knew. I think I knew from the day Akechi was babbling about it. Now that he's dead, I doubt Shido will ever be able to be convicted for the Metaverse murders, but it helps to know. To have some closure." Her hand covered his. "Thank you."

Akira could only bow.

"All right, enough with this serious stuff." Ryuji slammed his fist lightly on the counter. "We just beat the bad guy once and for all. We should do something fun."

Sojiro held up his hands. "It's going to take time to get stuff together for a party, and I was just detained. Give a guy a break."

Haru looked out the window. "It's a shame we can't go to the park. The snow is so lovely."

"Yeah, perfect for a snowball fight." Akira shrugged. "I guess you don't have enough open space to do that here."

"Oh, you can," Sae said. "Dad got very elaborate when I was younger. Ambushes, traps. He told me he was teaching me 'urban pacification tactics.' I think he just wanted me to do something outside."

"I remember that. You always got me before I got a shot off."

"Why am I not surprised that Niijima is a good shot?" Ann asked. "I want her on my team!"

Sae's eyes went wide. "I couldn't possibly...you can't be..." She looked at Akira, desperate for help. "It's a children's game! And I'm not a child!"

"We just took down a half-naked purple demon who punched the air so hard it shook and _now_ you're pulling the adult card?" Ryuji groaned. "Morgana can't throw a snowball, so we need an extra person to keep the teams even. Unless you want to join us, Boss?"

"Don't look at me."

Akira smiled to himself. The nice thing about dating someone after you'd spent three weeks running around their subconscious was that you learned a little about what made them tick. Sae needed to let off steam as much as the rest of them. "It's okay, Ann. You wouldn't want Sae on your team anyway. All those years slaving away in an office. I bet she couldn't hit Yusuke at ten paces."

A muscle in Sae's cheek twitched. "Excuse me?"

Akira made his voice syrupy-sweet. "I know a lot about mechanics and motion and I spent an hour every day during the summer at the batting cages. Ryuji and Futaba play a lot of shooters, and we both know how fierce Haru and Yusuke can be. She'd have no chance."

Sae was half out of her seat. "No chance? I may not be summoning lightning, but I can still beat you in a snowball fight."

"It just wouldn't be _fair_."

Sae yanked her coat from the space beside her and charged for the door, her face red. "All right, that does it! When I'm finished with you. Akira, you won't be bragging so much about physics. You going to be begging for mercy."

Sometimes, it was almost too easy. "Shall we pick teams, then? Ryuji, Yusuke, Haru, you're with me."

Thieves and prosecutor spilled out into the snowy streets. Even with the pain in his shoulder, Akira was still a good shot, and he supposed he should thank the detective for messing up his nondominant arm. The balls came as fast and furious as the bullets they fired in the Metaverse. He supposed it would look like war to a casual observer, they fought with such intensity. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to pretend-fight instead of being locked in a battle to the death, to just be normal.

Ann was first out, clipped on the shoulder by Ryuji. "Who's the greatest? Who's the gr-"

Makoto hit him flush in the chest, and Morgana let out a cheer. "Nice one. Lady Ann is avenged.

A white blur sailed towards Akira's face, and he ducked just in time. Sae. Her eyes flashed, and she was already readying a second snowball. Her chinks were pink with cold, exertions, and excitement. He wished he had time to just look at her like that. But even Phantom Thieves in love didn't go down easily. He let fly a snowball of his own as she was rising to her feet. She twisted, almost overbalancing herself, but dodging all the same. "That was almost like rule-breaking," she said between pants.

"I didn't know snowball fights had rules."

"No rules, huh?" She smiled. "You're going to regret that." She hit Yusuke in the leg and laughed. It was a warm sound that did funny things to his insides. Her face was smooth and radiant. This, he thought, was how she was meant to be: fighting hard and smart and having the time of her life.

Only he, Haru, and Sae remained. One combatant standing between him and victory. Except he couldn't seem to find Sae. She had disappeared after the volley that had taken out Makoto. "It's not like her to just quit. She must be planning something." He pointed north. "You go that way. I'll go this way." He and Haru set off.

A flash of black and violet caught his eye a few minutes later as Sae ducked into the alley behind Leblanc. Aha. He readied his snowball and gave chase. Sae was waiting for him, holding the largest snowball he had ever seen. Not a bad plan when these narrow streets made it so hard to dodge. Shame the last few months had done wonders for honing his reflexes. He dropped to a kneeling position as if he were firing the handgun as the snowball sailed harmlessly overhead. "Not a bad plan. Just not good enough."

Sae met his gaze, regal and defiant. "Get it over with. You've got-" She went rigid and pale. "What's that?" she asked in a small, terrified voice.

Akira half-turned. There was nothing there. Of course. Only an idiot would fall for tha- Something cold and wet hit him in the neck. A snowball. A really tiny snowball. "I'm an idiot."

Sae's eyes shone red. "What was that you said about 'not good enough?'"

The way she was looking at him, he would have happily been pelted with a dozen snowballs. "Faking out a one-armed cripple to win, Ms. Niijima. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"You're the one who said there weren't any rules. I never could stand to lose, in either world." She looked suddenly uncertain. "That's all right, isn't it? That I still like to win and I'm still a trickster?" _That doesn't make me her, right?_ lingered in the air, unspoken.

Akira closed the distance between them. "A trickster? That's what Igor—remind me to tell you about him—calls me, so I think you're okay. I wouldn't like you nearly as much if you couldn't keep me on my toes. We're..."

"Partners in crime?" she offered. "You've been quite good at corrupting me lately."

Partners? He had wanted a partner. Had prayed for it the day he had found Shido's codeword. The day he had really started falling for Sae. He loooked heavenward. _You aren't remotely subtle, are You? But I'll try to be good._ "Partners."

His fingers swept along her side, earning a slight gasp. Such a gift to be able to touch her without holding back. "Something occurs to me," he said casually. "This is the closest we've been to alone in two days. And we only have ninety-three more. We ought to make the most of this."

"Should we now?" He was close enough now that he could make out the flakes on her cheeks, her long eyelashes. She traced the muscles of his arms, mindful of his shoulder. "And what exactly should we do?"

Nevermind. He was going to spontaneously combust long before March got here. "Hm. Let me think." Her lips were cold and soft on his. He had kissed people before, but Akira didn't remember the electric shocks that raced over and through him. Maybe it was that she was the most beautiful woman in the world maybe or that he was finally kissing her without Shido hanging over his head or maybe that he loved her or maybe all three. The little noises she was making...he was doing that, in this world, with an injury and no Wild Card power.

There was a high-pitched squeal somewhere behind them. Akira and Sae broke apart to find seven Phantom Thieves blocking the alley and staring at them. Makoto had lost all her color. Ryuji and Ann had wide eyes. Futaba had a fiendish and not-at-all shocked grin. And Akira? He politely waited for the pavement to swallow him whole. They were supposed to find out tomorrow at a very respectable celebration, not like this. Not...not catch him and Sae _en flagrante._ Sae was frozen in his arms.

Haru recovered first. "Oh, I am so happy for you guys!" She rushed forward to envelop them in an embrace of her own and a warm babble of chatter washed over him.

"All, right pay up!" Futaba cackled. "I win!"

"Hold on a sec. We don't even know if this was their first kiss. Was it?"

"That's none of your business," Sae snapped. "And what do you mean 'pay up?'"

The others shared a look. "We created a betting pool about when you two would act on your attraction," Yusuke said as if he were discussing the weather. "I may have been rewarded quite handsomely."

"Betting pool?" Sae spluttered. "You were betting on us? All of you? Even Makoto?"

"I don't know much about love, but I know when you're happy, Sis."

"Then you...you're okay with this?"

"As long as you're both happy." She thought for a moment. "And I never accidentally walk in on anything. Ever again. You're ruining my mental image of the two of you."

Sae chuckled. Akira could get used to that sound. "Deal."

Akira disentangled himself. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get cleaned up and go to the vigil Mass while the trains are still running and while I still have a shred of dignity." He did, after all, have so much to be thankful for.


	12. Chapter 12

_December 18_

Sae had never been a gourmand, but Sojiro's curry tasted especially good tonight. She sat next to Akira, who was finally wearing something besides that hooded jacket, with an excellent view of the television as Shido broke down in front of the entire country. He sobbed. "Please punish me for the evil I've done! I have manipulated the electorate for years, even down to this election. I am the one behind the mental shutdowns and rampages, selfishly using them to benefit my own power. I demand to be punished at once!"

"And so he falls like all the rest." Makoto looked just like their dad when she narrowed her eyes like that. "Will Shido's confession be enough, Sis?"

"It'll certainly be a nice start." She had already amassed dozens of pages of evidence of bribes and breaches of election law dating back years, and it looked like Shido was going to be cooperative enough to help her connect the dots. "Proving that he was actually behind any of the murders is going to be very difficult without corroborating testimony. I'll be concentrating on the white-collar crimes."

"Well that's just not right." Sakamoto set his glass down on the table. His voice was even louder than usual. "He killed his Futaba's mom, Haru's dad, your dad, and he's just going to get away with it? We could testify you know."

Akira paled. "Will it come to that? If our sacrifice is the only way to see justice done..."

Sae swallowed the lump in her throat. These soldiers before their time were the hope of Japan, not those who chased after money and power at the cost of everything else. "That won't be necessary. You've done so much to protect me. Now, let me protect you. I have no doubt that the remnants of Shido's conspiracy will attempt to retaliate in time, but they're disorganized." Her career was probably stalled permanently now that her superiors knew that she had helped the Phantom escape.

Screw her superiors. "It's time for you to return to your normal lives." She smiled at Akira. "Don't stay up too late. You have to go to school tomorrow. Even if the conspirators do know your other identity, they won't dare try anything this soon."

"Just in time for exams." Sakamoto groaned. "Akira, tell your girlfriend that she needs to work on her timing. We just saved the country. That totally deserves like a tropical vacation."

Akira returned her smile. Her boyfriend. It still didn't feel real, but Sae intended to hold onto him for as long as she could. "I'm looking forward to living again."

"Taking exams is living again? You've been hanging around Niijimas too long, bro. But it will be nice to do stuff without looking over our shoulder all the time."

Sakura raised his glass. "A toast then: to living again."

"To living again!" Akira toasted them. "And to those we love."

"To those we love," they chorused. Someday, when the two of them had settled into a routine as a couple, maybe Sae could find the courage to tell Akira that she loved him directly, just like she had found it for Makoto.

"And to the Phantom Thieves." Kitagawa looked down. "Though I'm at a loss as to what we should do now that our chief adversary has been dealt with. So many people still need assistance."

Akira cleared his throat, all traces of the charismatic Phantom gone. "I've, um been thinking about that, actually." He took Sae's hand, and she squeezed. "I don't want to take any more hearts without consent. I think I got a little smug and self-righteous before, and I didn't like who I turned into. I want to stick to helping people who want to change or convincing their Shadows to change like we did with Mishima or getting information from Shadows. I completely understand if you guys feel differently, and I won't stop you. I just can't do it anymore."

Silence. Sae held her breath. Akira's decision made her feel better, but she wasn't the one who had been living this life for eight months and tasted the heady power of being able to deal with evil that people like her had considered untouchable. Takamaki's eyes were bright, and she might have been holding back tears. "But you're our leader. We need you!"

"Makoto's a good leader. Nobody's better at talking to Shadows then you are. I just have a few extra bells and whistles. You never really needed me."

"But what if there's another Shido?" Okumura's voice was soft.

"If the country is ever in danger like this again, I'll be the first into the Palace with the rest of you. But I want to give the system a chance to work. And myself a chance to be plain old Akira for a while."

More silence, and then Morgana meowed softly. "Yeah. Yeah. You're right." Sakamoto steadied himself with visible effort and glared at Sae. He had always looked like a child playing at being a delinquent before, but in this moment he looked genuinely menacing. "Our leader's placing a hell of a lot of trust in you. That means we should too. The bad guys better start going down open and aboveboard."

There was a time when Sae would have said that Sakamoto might as well have asked her to climb Mount Fuji; but it was indifference that had gotten Japan into this mess and the Phantom Thieves' courage against impossible odds that had saved it. So she bowed. "I swear to you that I'll do my best to live up to the trust you have placed in me."

"Thanks, Sis."

A timer dinged. "That'll be the dango. Want to help me with that, Sae?" Akira raised his eyebrow ever so slightly, and a spark raced inside her. For all his talk about "sneaking around with boys," Akira was as subtle as a train barreling through the station. Or maybe he was just as eager and giddy as she was.

"Don't take too long, lovebirds. I want my dessert!"

Sae's face burned, but she trooped along behind Akira all the same. Her arms came around him, and she buried her nose in his neck. He was delightfully warm and solid. She was learning to like giving and receiving physical affection, both from him and Makoto. The warmth seemed to leech from him to her, and she wondered how she had gone so long without it.

He made a soft, pleased sound and returned the embrace. "That went much better than I thought it would. We can do this, right? Take the bad guys down using the law? Walk into the sunset and get our degrees and become SIU director?"

"Stop saying that. I keep telling you that I'm the most junior prosecutor in the department." But Sae couldn't muster any heat. It felt wonderful to be optimistic again. She was finally going to repay Akira and the others for everything they had done and put Shido in prison. They, the weak and despised, had brought down the most popular politician the country had seen in seventy years. "We can do this. I might be giving up sleep for the next month, but I will prove worthy of your faith in the system."

"I believe you." He broke the embrace. "If you need my help in either world, just let me know. It doesn't seem right that he won't go to jail for killing your dad. If the day comes that Shido needs to go down for murder..." There was an almost imperceptible crack in his voice.

"Dad is dead. You and Makoto are alive. Prison will be just as unpleasant for him whether the charges are murder or bribery. All those corruption charges will add up. Even with sympathetic judges, he'll be spending thirty years in prison minimum. Without you going to juvenile hall." She hoped her dad would understand.

"Thank you." His phone went off, and he smiled. "Yoshida got elected! I guess even with everything, not everyone bought into Shido's crap. What even happens with the Diet now? Shido just admitted to rigging the election."

"With luck, there will be enough public outcry to force a new election. It depends on how detailed Shido's confession is and how much the press reports. Ohya will be critical."

"And if there isn't a new election? He won in a landslide."

Then the UFP would govern until it was time to call a new election. They would be hamstrung by Shido's downfall and infighting for leadership, but Japanese politics would have lurched back toward archconservative nationalism. "Don't underestimate the power of the civil service. We can do a great deal to check the power-hungry when we put our mind to it. I promise you that there will be no national nightmare." She would work her hardest to keep that promise.

They returned to the others with the dessert and Sae watched them dig into their food with gusto. Even Akira must have decided her assurances were enough because he was eating almost as fast as Sakamoto. _As long as I can keep them safe and see justice done, I'll pay any price._

Her phone buzzed. That price was going to include spending the rest of her night away from Akira and Makoto. "Shido just got transferred to a hospital. I have to go." She brushed Akira's cheek. "Have fun, but don't overdo it, all right?"

"Why, Prosecutor, I never overdo anything." He clutched his heart and gave her his most charming grin. "Except when it comes to you."

Sae smiled as she walked out into the cold darkness of Yongenjaya. Akira loved her. She loved him. Nobody was trying to kill either of them, and she had finally thrown off the mask of stupidity and indifference. Everything was going to be fi—

A sob cut through the air. Sae looked around to find a young couple huddled together. She had seen them around the neighborhood several times on her way to and from Leblanc, but they had never spoken. Both of them were crying openly. "Is everything all right?"

"No!" The woman wailed, and mucus dripped from her nose. "Nothing will ever be all right again! Shido is the only man who can save Japan, and he's so distraught! We have no hope!"

"Shido is a fraud and a murderer. You can find plenty of things that deserve your faith. He isn't one of them." Sae tried to make her voice firm but sympathetic. The worst part about prosecuting grifters was consoling those who, out of desperation, had trusted them and found themselves with only misery. Millions of people had just been conned.

"No, he's not. You don't understand. He was the only one telling us we could be a great country again! I don't know why he would accuse himself of such horrible things, but there's no way that they're true."

"There, there, sweetheart. It will be all right." The man held his wife close, but he too looked utterly despairing. "Somehow."

"The thought of such a kind and noble man going to prison…" She shuddered.

"The prosecutors office wouldn't dare. Don't they have real criminals to worry about?"

Sae growled. This was getting ridiculous. "No one is above the law, no matter how charismatic they are. We have good reason to believe that Shido is guilty of multiple felonies, and if the judges agree, he will go to prison."

"He is not guilty." She finally noticed Sae's badge, and her eyes flashed as she shook with rage. "How dare you suggest prosecuting such a great man? Are you trying to destabilize this country? I bet you're some heartless social climber looking to build her own career on the backs of the rest of us! Monster!" She lunged clumsily, drunkenly, forcing Sae to twist out of the way.

"Never mind her. She's just one civil service drone. We can still save Shido. Join a protest. Sign a petition." And, seemingly cheered by that, they ran off.

It was the same everywhere she went: people distraught and disbelieving over Shido's confession. None of them even considering that it might be true and swearing that the prosecutors office would never thwart "the will of the people." Nausea roiled in her stomach. Fear, too, if she were honest. It was always a delicate line that prosecutors walked. They had tremendous discretion, but drawing negative attention to the office, let alone something as dramatic as protests and petitions, was a good way to end up dismissed. Even if Handa weren't in bed with Shido, he wouldn't want to go anywhere near this case. If she tried, she would be finished as a prosecutor. No more elegant apartment or town car or spoiling Akira as she'd planned.

 _I said any price, and I meant it. I am my father's daughter._

Tokyo General was crowded even on election night. It was a place Sae knew well: the bustle of orderlies, the stench of disinfectant. She marched to the clerk on duty and showed her her badge. "Which room is Masaysohi Shido's? I need to interrogate him immediately."

The clerk tapped a few keystrokes. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Shido is in isolation pending a psychiatric evaluation. He's not to receive any visitors, especially not from the prosecutor's office.

"He's not crazy, he's a criminal!" She and the other prosecutors had felt humiliated by the Phantom Thieves doing their job for them, but interrogations of those driven to confess to crimes had always been conducted promptly. "Who gave the order? And what do you mean 'especially not anyone from the prosecutor's office?'"

"Just as I said." The clerk had the good grace to look embarrassed. "The order comes from our Chief of Psychiatry—and the interim director of the Special Investigation Unit."

 _December 22_

Akira staggered out of the classroom, exhausted but terribly pleased with himself. If he hadn't scored the highest on the exam, he would eat his proverbial hat. Returning to a life as a normal student had been like returning to the gym after a long absence: it made you feel awkward and stiff but you never really forgot what you were supposed to do. His classmates had stared at him, and the air buzzed with questions they didn't dare ask, but his life was his own again.

He turned his phone back on. There was a single text from Sae. Akira smiled to himself. They had seen each other for only a handful of minutes since Shido's change of heart, enough time for quick kisses and for him to know that her attempts at interviewing Shido were being stymied by his psychiatrist and her director. Bastards.

 _I'm finishing up an interview with a witness who works for the University of Tokyo. Want to take a walk around the campus?_

Akira's smile widened. Sometimes he thought Sae believed in his academic prowess more than he did. _I'll be right there._

Before the arrest, Akira had spent more than one afternoon browsing the university website, looking at pictures and fantasizing about what it would be like to be a student here. When he had arrived in the city, visiting the campus had seemed too much like picking at a scab. But now…The photographs didn't do the place justice. Students thronged in every direction going from class to class, talking quietly among themselves. He caught bits and pieces of the kind of gossip that was always floating around Shujin: who was dating who, how hard a test was, what so-and-so had been doing the night before. But there were snatches of other, higher conversations as well: the contents of a chemistry journal, the contents of an art show, and yes, discussions of the ice plumes of Europa gravitational waves. There was work to be done here, just like with the Phantom Thieves, except that he could build a life around it.

Sae was waiting for him not far inside the gate. Akira frowned. There were dark circles under her eyes that makeup couldn't quite hide, and he didn't like the color of her skin. Her posture was tense, as if waiting for an attack. But the smile she gave him was warm and genuine. "Glad you could make it."

"Visiting the university, spending time with you, and celebrating the end of the exams. How could I refuse?" He dared no more than to brush his knuckles against hers in such a public place. "Everything okay? You look like you're dead on your feet."

"Just the normal high-profile case grind. Compounded by Shido's psychiatrist stonewalling me when I asked for another expert to evaluate his mental state and Handa doing everything he can to frustrate my investigation without actually ordering me to stop. Files going missing, key personnel taking vacations. But don't worry. If there's one thing you've taught me, it's the value of persistence."

"I'm not worried." Sae might insist she was only a junior prosecutor, but she was a brilliant one. And he had broken the back of the conspiracy. All that was left was a lecherous, cowardly director and a few other stragglers. A lot of people would be upset that they had been taken in, but there had been enough time for the shock to wear off, and people would be howling for blood. All the information he had gotten from Ooe and the other Shadows had to count for something. "Going to be hard prosecuting someone when you can't interview them, though. Do you want me to go and _talk_ to the psychiatrist and your boss? No heists." If Akechi and Shido could use the Metaverse to blackmail one director, he could use it to scare the living daylights out of another.

Sae was silent for a long time. "It may come to that, but I don't want to ask you for that kind of help unless it's truly necessary. I want to do everything absolutely by the book, afford Shido every protection that he's due, and still convict him. It's what Dad would have wanted."

The father whose murderer would go unpunished because Sae didn't want to ruin the lives of the Phantom Thieves. "You promised me a walk around the campus?"

They walked slowly along the paths, and Akira enjoyed the wind in his face. He and Sae were anonymous again, but it was the good kind of anonymous where they might have been any young couple in love. He took in the sights and sounds, making mental notes of flyers for student associations and guest lectures open to anyone. "I hope the cafeteria renovation is done by the time I'm here."

"Already making plans for student life?" Sae's voice was teasing despite her exhaustion. "You may find yourself sick of the city before you know it. No decent stargazing."

"That's what trips to the country are for. I'll get myself a portable telescope, and I'll be good to go. There's always the planetarium if I get bored." _Science Consultant: Dr. Akira Kurusu._ "There's a new show this winter. Might take some notes about how to present the material in an engaging way for the lay audience. Since I spend so much time around the lay audience. I'd hate for you to spend the next three months bored out of your skull."

"You are never boring. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Morgana emerged from his backpack. "Psst, Akira. Doesn't that new show of yours began on Christmas Eve? It could be an excellent opportunity for a romantic evening."

Sae raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"Just Morgana offering some advice when he really shouldn't." Very soon, Morgana wouldn't need a translator to embarrass him. He'd visited Sae's Palace the day they had sent Shido the calling card. Flowers in hand, he had transversed the casino until he had reached the manager's office without ever changing into his Joker garb. He had returned to the real world, left the flowers on her desk, and returned the way he came, all without incident or even meeting her Shadow. Sae would be safe with him. And even her offices would be closed for the new year. Thet'd be able to be together as lovers. "That we should spend Christmas Eve together."

She started. "Christmas Eve? That's right, the day for lovers. It's been years since I've had to think about Christmas Eve." She brightened. "I still have to buy your present. We'll have to think of a way not to draw tended to ourselves, but yes, I'd like to do something with you."

"Round up the others, go to the planetarium, say you're chaperoning a group of delinquents, I sit next to you and whisper interesting facts about dark matter." He pitched his voice lower, the register that made her shiver a little. "Or other things. And then, once the holidays are over, I go to the courtroom and actually watch you work."

"You've already watched me work."

"Yeah, that was for my work and you weren't as motivated as you are now. I want to see Japan's foremost legal mind do her thing."

Sae was never more beautiful than when she preened at a genuine compliment. Exhaustion didn't change that. "You—what's going on?"

A crowd of reporters had assembled in front of one of the psychology buildings. A man in his fifties in a dark suit and with a kind and serious face stood on the steps as cameras snapped and conversation buzzed. Others had stopped and were watching rapt as he tapped a lapel mic. "Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I wish to address certain aspects of the so-called Phantom Thieves of Hearts cases that my colleagues and I have recently confirmed. All of their claimed victims suffered from quite ordinary mental breakdowns, which these 'Thieves' merely took advantage of. Nothing is going on here but poor mental health. Mr. Okumura's death was likely drug-induced. I repeat, these Phantom Thieves are frauds."

What? Akira went still. He wasn't proud of everything he had done as Joker, but only a fool could watch Madarame's or Shido's confession and see ordinary, unrelated cases of mental illness. But the reporters and the crowd around him were nodding as if the researcher was confirming something they already believed.

"I knew there was nothing to those Phantom Thieves."

"Just high schoolers looking for attention."

"I hope this means Shido can take his place as Prime Minister soon. I mean, campaigning nonstop would make the best of us have a nervous breakdown, but I don't know if anyone but Shido can handle times like these."

Rage, as cold and sharp as a demon-infused knife filled him. _Are you people crazy? Shido confessed to murder. On TV. Aren't you the same people who always talk about how slimy politicians are? We almost died a thousand times so you could be free, and you want to pretend the Phantom Thieves don't even exist?_ "Sae, I need you to get me out of here again before you're forced to arrest me for assault."

As they made their way through the throng of students, all talk of discovery or art had been replaced by talk of Shido: what a great man he was, how worried they were, how they would be utterly destroyed without a strong leader.

His phone went off again as Sae led him to a dead end flanked by two laboratories. Mishima. _Did you just see what that psychologist said? And nobody on the Phan-site is talking about it. The news isn't talking about Shido's confession, either. It's like the Phantom Thieves never even existed._

"It's been like this ever since you changed Shido's heart," Sae told him. "Either people don't believe Shido could be a murderer or they act as if they didn't hear and latch onto any explanation, no matter how unlikely. At first, I thought it was natural defense mechanisms kicking in, but I'm beginning to wonder." Her pallor deepened as she rubbed her temples. "History is littered with charismatic despots and the crowds that adored them, but this is beyond anything I've ever heard of."

"So you think it is brainwashing?" The idea had seemed almost plausible last month and comforting in a weird sort of way: people weren't supporting Shido because they were evil, but because they were being manipulated. Now it was horrifying. A city of thirteen-and-a-half million people all thinking in lockstep. He looked at Morgana. "Is that even possible?"

"I don't know! It's like they've all had a miniature mental shutdown, except there's no Akechi to give them a mental shutdown."

"Well, something has to be done soon or they'll take any totalitarian dictator who promises to implement Shido's policies. Which was probably the plan of the person behind this in the first place."

"I swear I'll find out who and what's causing this." He had promised he would help the mentally ill, and something was clearly affecting their minds. The people of Japan deserved to be free from tyranny in whatever form it took. He kissed Sae, hard and closedmouthed, not particularly caring if anyone walked by. "I swear I won't let you be enslaved."

Akira dreamed of the Velvet Room that night, and the chains around his wrists and ankles seemed unusually heavy. Igor's eyes were hard, the twist of his lips almost cruel. "It seems you have failed in your rehabilitation. The ruin of the world cannot be avoided."

Ruin? Was this what he was supposed to prevent, the reason he had been given this power that mirrored Akechi's? "They can be saved. You helped me before. Help me now!"

"I cannot. My apologies." He didn't sound sorry. "Mankind desires order and freedom from uncertainty, not the liberty of action you have championed. Freedom cannot be forced upon the unwilling. They have made their choice."

"Does the schizophrenic make a choice when he does something because of a hallucination?" Akira seized the bars. "I will find a way to save them."

"Mankind's heart is too distorted. It cannot be saved."

"Only because no one has ever tried." People had written off Futaba and Sae, but now look at them. And he had promised Sae.

"Yes, the prosecutor is an intriguing complication that I did not foresee. Very well, Trickster. Let the game continue. It will be interesting to observe you for a while longer."

Akira woke with a start, his heart pounding. Things were really bad if Igor was losing faith in him. Tokyo was either insane or being manipulated. Igor was wrong. Mankind's souls were distorted by the corruption of their hearts, but they weren't entirely evil. He wouldn't give up on them as long as he was still breathing.

Wait. The corruption of their hearts. Igor had called their hearts distorted. What if, what if... He sat up in bed and shook Morgana awake. "If Mementos is the Palace for all of Tokyo, does that mean it embodies their corrupt desires?"

Morgana blinked and yawned. "That's what a Palace is."

"Then there is a Treasure that we can steal." The last time they had reached a wall, Futaba had told him the depths lay just beyond. Every time the public's perception of them changed, another wall came down. "I know how we can finally, really, take back this country."


	13. Chapter 13

_December 23_

Sae paced. _You must not rage or scream,_ her father had told her after she had passed the bar. _People will never take you seriously as a prosecutor unless you can check your rage._ She dug her nails into her palm and resisted the urge to toss Handa and Shido's psychiatrist out the window. "I have waited very patiently, but I must interrogate Shido."

The psychiatrist pushed his glasses up his nose. "As I have told you repeatedly, Mr. Shido is in no state to be interrogated. He may have to be moved to somewhere more remote for full evaluation."

"And afterwards, we'll never see him again. He'll be on a tropical island where we don't have an extradition treaty, and your friends in the UFP will be free to bring Japan back to World War II. Do I have that about right?"

"Niijima, this office is supposed to be above politics."

A contemptuous laugh tore out of her throat. "When have we ever been above politics? Was it when your predecessor was doing everything he could to manipulate things for Shido? You know what happened to him. It's only a matter of time before you're discarded as well."

The color drained from Handa's face and he opened his mouth and closed it again. When he spoke, there was a slight quaver in his voice that Sae chose to take as a victory. "Let's say you're right and Shido is behind the mental shutdowns of the past three years. You're talking about taking the Prime Minister to court. Not just the Prime Minister, but the most popular one that we've ever had. The United Future Party is on the cusp of bringing historical change to this country. Would you really derail that for the sake of a few dozen people who never mattered to begin with?"

 _My father was one of those people._ The rage within her coalesced and settled around her heart, sword and shield all at once. If the badge she wore meant anything, then it was this. "Their lives were precious. Democracy is precious. Shido and the UFP want to destroy all that. You talk about a great nation? Well, the only reason we are a great nation is because no man is above the law."

"Such fire," Handa murmured. "Far more fire than anyone else who received a calling card has ever displayed. It's a shame I never got you into bed. I could have given you the world." He smiled like a wolf about to down its prey. "You are removed from this case effective immediately and placed on indefinite administrative leave—without pay. The SIU is too important to be compromised by someone with rumored ties to the Phantom Thieves."

"What?" Only a handful of people knew about her ties to the Phantom Thieves, and all of them were confederates themselves. Everyone remaining in the office was under the UFP's thumb in one way or another. She felt the case against Shido slipping through her fingers like sand.

"This is what happens when a woman forgets her place. A young and beautiful thing like you should be having children with a husband who can keep you in line. I would offer, but I think I can do a little better these days than No-Heart Niijima." He laughed, drunk on his victory. "Oh, I know! You'll be on leave for quite some time. Why don't you use it to find a husband?" More raucous laughter that followed her out the door.

She had lost, overplayed her hand and ruined the chance to bring Shido to justice. He seemed to be everywhere as she trudged toward the station, in eager young men handing out petitions and gray-haired pundits pontificating on the news. Brainwashed? It shouldn't have been possible, but then a talking cat shouldn't have been possible. The kind of manipulation Akira could perform shouldn't have been possible.

Akira. He had placed so much faith in her, and she had betrayed it. The system was rotten all the way down after all, only the vigilantes were able to effect justice, and she had no more power than she had had before.

There was a package waiting for her from Tanaka's. Of course. She had been so optimistic and in love yesterday. When Akira had mentioned needing only a portable telescope to be perfectly happy in Tokyo, it had seemed the most natural Christmas gift in the world. She'd spent hours researching what he might need before settling on a modified spotting scope recommended by a former JAXA scientist. She lugged the box inside and opened it. The scope was sturdy in her hands. And look, here were the replacement lenses, camera attachment, and filters she had thrown in for good measure. Far more than most people spent on Christmas Eve gifts, but she had been able to afford it. She had wanted to give him something he would treasure, not just a pair of mittens. In retrospect, maybe she should have been more modest.

"In retrospect, maybe you should have walked away in the interrogation room," said a voice that was both familiar and not. "It's not like saving Akira's life accomplished anything but turning you into a romantic fool."

A...woman sat on the couch. Her dress was low-cut, and the slit up her thigh showed off long legs in fishnet stockings. Heavy black eyeliner, black lipstick, and a spiked choker made her look like a child who had decided to rebel by raiding a makeup case and the pet store. Tattoos of yellow roses adorned her arms, and a real one adorned her hat, holding in place a set of playing cards. Yellow rose. Playing cards. The floor shifted under her. The woman's eyes were yellow. And it was Sae's earrings she wore. "You." Except she was in the real world. Sae blinked. Her Shadow was still there. "I'm hallucinating."

"Of course you are, but that doesn't mean anything. The boundaries between this world and mine are more fluid than even the cat wants to admit. I'm here because you want me to be."

"I don't want anything to do with you." She reached for her phone. Akira couldn't kill her other half, but maybe he could march into the Metaverse and hit her very, very hard.

"Don't," the Shadow said, and a pressure encased Sae from the neck down, freezing her in place. The Shadow stood. "You lost because you were weak. It's not your fault, really. Men like Handa and Shido have been amassing power for decades. Life isn't a fairytale. The ragtag bunch of thieves don't defeat the evil king."

The weight crushed Sae's lungs, and her breath came in short, shallow gasps. She had to remain calm. This was her subconscious. It couldn't do anything to her that she didn't want. "Right...thing...to...do."

"When has that ever mattered? Did it matter for Dad? Dead is dead. Nothing you do now will make the slightest bit of difference. You might as well be comfortable."

"Comfortable?" How could she be comfortable in a world that saw her as nothing more than her genitals? That would oppress Makoto in the same way? That would roll back freedom for the sake of illusions? And with no job?

"Oh, there's always been space for those who go along to get along. Grovel to Handa. Destroy your notes. Offered to destroy a few of his enemies for him, and you probably won't even have to sleep with him to get your job back. Find yourself a handsome young man who won't drag you into any hopeless crusades."

And, for a moment, she could almost see it. Standing with a glass in her hand at the bar association meeting, wearing a dress that cost more than most people made in a month and with a brainless young man on her arm who she treated as others had treated her. Punishing the indifferent citizenry by bringing the full might of the legal system against them. Japan would drown in its morass of corruption, but it was always going to drown, and at least Sae would have a place on the lifeboats.

Something white fluttered at the edge of her vision. Sae turned her head, and every centimeter was a war. Akira's latest basket of edelweiss sat on the table next to her laptop. Courage and power. She closed her eyes. Choose. On one side was power and glory, all the comfort she had dreamed of growing up in that cramped apartment. On the other, death and obscurity. Another pile of ashes in the Niijima tomb. And Akira and Makoto. Being able to live with herself. "No."

"No?" The Shadow dashed to her and seized Sae by the shoulders. Spittle and hot breath assaulted Sae's cheeks. "Don't you understand? There's no happy ending for you with Akira! You can't possibly love him this much. You. Are. Going. To. Die. And still you persist. Why?"

The pressure in her lungs receded, and with it all her anger and fear. There were worse fates than death. She had almost forgotten that. "Because, no matter what else happens, I don't want to be you."

The vise holding Sae in place shattered, and she fell to her knees, coughing. Soft hands smoothed her hair and stroked her neck. "Easy. It's not easy to make a choice like that," a voice said.

Sae stared. It was her Shadow, but she had changed. She was smiling softly. Her dress was a deep purple that shimmered and glowed in the light. The black makeup was gone, replaced by what Sae normally wore. Her hair was loose and shining. And pinned to her dress was an edelweiss. "If we were in my world, this would be the part where I would say 'I am thou', but as it is..." She pulled Sae to her feet. "May the poor, healed subconscious offer some advice?"

Sae could only gape.

"Stop that. This isn't even the strangest thing you've seen this week." Her eyes narrowed the same way Mom's had when Sae got in trouble. "I think it's time to swallow our pride and ask for supernatural help. Shido can still have his fair trial when Handa and his friends aren't brainwashing Tokyo. It's not betraying justice. Think of it as freeing the wrongly imprisoned."

"Wrongly imprisoned?"

"We were saved from a worse fate than you know." Her Shadow shuddered. "Before you built the casino with your envy, we were in a prison. A place where we didn't have to think for ourselves or even want to. That is where Shadows without strong desires that make them unable to fit in reside, and it's where I would have returned if you hadn't thrown off your shackles."

A prison. That was how her life had felt before rage and bitterness had consumed everything: shaking the bars of a society where she would never fit in. "That's why people are ignoring everything about Shido? They've been imprisoned in the Metaverse?"

"Their hearts have become more distorted than they already were. As if someone were actively causing it." Her golden eyes glittered. "Fortunately, we know an excellent thief. A second piece of advice, you don't have to be so absolutely nauseatingly sweet around Akira. I know you're a prosecutor: but there's no law against sticking your tongue down your boyfriend's throat, even if he is seventeen." With that, she was gone.

Sae smoothed her blazer and straightened her prosecutor's badge. She had work to do.

The Phantom Thieves had already assembled at Leblanc, huddled around a booth and talking in low, urgent tones. They looked up as she approached, cheeks pale but their eyes hopeful. Sae met Akira's gaze. "I failed you. I did everything I could to fight for a case, but it was for nothing. The general public is imprisoned by their own desires, and I can't do this alone. At the rate things are going, Shido's lackeys will be committing Metaverse crimes on a national scale." She swallowed. "I think I need you to steal the public's hearts."

They didn't look nearly as shocked as Sae expected. "I know," Akira said slowly. "We need to go to the depths of Mementos and steal the Treasure." He and Morgana exchanged a look. "It would mean the destruction of the Metaverse. No more changing hearts for good reasons or bad."

"I know you were looking forward to retirement but..." Futaba frowned. "What if there are more girls like me who can't be helped by a regular doctor and kill themselves because of their distorted desires?"

"Damn, we were never supposed to make decisions like that." Ryuji twisted his hands in his hair. "But if we don't do something, there'll be more shutdowns like your mom."

"Millions more." Futaba sniffed. "Okay, tomorrow we destroy the Metaverse and stop the rotten adults." She wiped her eyes. "Anybody want ramen? If I'm going to be a normal high school student starting tomorrow, I think I need to gain more levels in socializing."

A round of nods, but Akira was grave and quiet. "You guys go without me. Morgana and I want to spend some time alone with Sae." Morgana gave him a surprised meow that must have meant "we do?" because Akira added, "I promise I will personally take you to the Wilton and sneak you all the fatty tuna your tummy can handle, but right now we have something we need to discuss."

Makoto looked between them. "You're as pale as a ghost, Sis. Are you sure you'll be all right?"

 _I just stared down my own Shadow. I don't think there's much I can't handle._ "Go on. You have a big day tomorrow." She gave Makoto a quick hug, and then she, Akira, and Morgana were alone.

Akira paced the length of the counter, hands jammed in his pockets. "Please tell me that I'm doing the right thing, that a bunch of future Futabas aren't going to kill themselves because I'm a coward. That their won't be another Shido." His breath hitched.

Sae wished Akira loved someone else enough to be this vulnerable. But there was only her: the cold-eyed, ruthless prosecutor who loved truth more than sympathy. "I can't promise you that. You wanted to heal the mentally ill. This is triage." She put her arms around him. Every muscle in his body was rigid. She tried to hold them close, to tell him with her arms what she couldn't with her mouth. "Sometimes there are no good choices. Welcome to adulthood."

"I think I hate adulthood. Anyway, I'm not an adult. After tomorrow, I'm just going to be an ordinary high school student. No more diamonds, no more dramatic jumps out of windows." He pulled back to look at her. "That doesn't bother you, does it? I mean, you keep saying you like regular me, but I'm just be some kid. I won't have anything to offer you anymore."

 _What do I have to do to make you believe me? How badly were you scarred that you don't?_ She planted little kisses along the top of his forehand, his temple, his cheek. Anywhere that she could reach. "I want you just as you are. And I won't be able to show off for you either. Well, except for your Christmas Eve present. I'd already bought that before Handa put me on administrative leave."

He laughed, but it came out more like a sob. "Well, now I have to rob Mementos. Get you your job back. So we both have one last grand romantic gesture before we go back to being normal people?" He cleared his throat and took both her hands in his. "We talked about taking you to the Metaverse so you and Morgana could talk to each other. This is our last chance. If you still want to. I don't know what will happen."

"I think I can face the Metaverse." She told him about the hallucination in her apartment. Akira's eyes grew wider and wider as she spoke, and even Morgana seemed shocked.

"Every time I think I get a handle on how that world works, something weird happens." He stroked her cheek. "And every time I think I know how brave and strong you are, you surprise me."

They rode back to her office in silence, Morgana in Akira's lap. Sae's body hummed with anticipation. She was finally going to see, really see, the world where Akira and Makoto had done so much for the last eight months. A taste of magic for the woman who had thought she had outgrown it. She parked and the squat, imposing outline of the courthouse loomed before her. Akira took out his phone and whispered something that sounded suspiciously like a Hail Mary before he said in a quiet, calm voice. "Sae Niijima. Prosecutor. Courthouse. Casino."

"Destination accepted." A wave of nausea passed over Sae and then she was looking at a courthouse that was no longer a courthouse. Neon lights promised success and fortune to all who entered, while a jazzy pulsing beat urged the listeners to forget their inhibitions. And emblazoned at the entrance: ABSOLUTELY NO CHEATING—VIOLATERS WILL BE EXPELLED. Sae turned and gasped. Akira looked as he always did, but Morgana stood on two legs, his head far too large for his body. As many times as she had been told, she hadn't truly believed he could look like this until now.

It was Morgana who broke the silence. He bowed to her. "A pleasure to meet you at last, Ms. Niijima."

Good manners and instinct kicked in and Sae bowed in return. "The pleasure is mine, sir." A talking cat, an actual talking cat. And a Palace where she was the master and the house made the rules. _Give into temptation..._ "Would you be so kind as to scout ahead? There's something I want to say to Akira before we go further."

She took Akira into her arms. "I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I don't want to have any regrets. She kissed him, softly at first, earning familiar noises from him. She traced the lines of his chest and back, roaming over the shoulder she could touch only in this world. Then she deepened the kiss, tracing the outline of his lips with her tongue, drawing him in. Akira gasped in her mouth and wild pleasure coursed through her. She was not No-Heart Niijima. She wanted the man before her more than she had wanted almost anything in the world. He was kissing her back, biting at her lower lip and tracing her body with trembling hands. _Yes. More. Just like that._

When they pulled back, both of them were breathing hard. Akira's hair was a mess, but he looked smug and satisfied and utterly delighted. "I didn't know you had that in you. I didn't know I had that in me."

"There are a lot of sides of me that you haven't seen yet." She had to believe in him, in herself, and that what they had could survive beyond a fairyland of romance and temptation. She traced his lips with her fingers. "I look forward to showing you. Tomorrow and every day after."

* * *

 _Two more chapters to go. Next is Christmas Eve and all that implies._


	14. Chapter 14

_December 24—Morning_

"So this is the power that resists ruin," Yaldabaoth said. "A pity it is not enough."

 _What is it going to take to put this guy down for good?_ Akira tasted blood on his lip, and it hadn't come from his mask. Every muscle in his body screamed in the agony of exhaustion. Tokyo loomed far below him, its streets awash with blood and the bonelike spires of Mementos erupting from the ground. This was what he had always fought for. "You're just a guy in metal armor with a bunch of arms who thinks he's a god."

"I am a god, far more than the one you bow and scrape to. I raised you up from dust and I will destroy you. My control is the ultimate truth of this world. A red light erupted from the thing's chest, and Akira was sent sailing backwards. Pain exploded behind his eyes, driving out reason or anything other than the bestial instinct to stay alive.

Yaldabaoth spoke again, except his voice seemed to whisper in Akira's ear. "You see? You are just the same as the masses. They will take anything as long as they can continue their feeble existence. Science? Faith? Broken reeds next to the desire for order."

No. No! There was more to life than this hell on earth. Yaldabaoth was only a tyrant, like Shido, and all tyrants fell in the end. The world had been created for mystery and enchantment, and there was none of that in this world. There were limits to Yaldabaoth's power. Some things were true regardless of belief. God was both one and three. The speed of light was two hundred million, seven hundred and ninety-two thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight meters per second. He existed. He _existed_.

Yaldabaoth laughed. "Still trying to filter reality through your creeds and equations? You have impressed me, mortal, so I will tell you the truth: there is no reality but that of cognition. I can make black white if enough people will it so. And they do not will the Phantom Thieves to exist. I will permit no uncertainty in my new order."

"Then do it then!" If he was going to be blasted into nothingness, he would die with some dignity. Akira hauled himself to his knees and gritted his teeth. "You can't do it, can you? You tried to erase us before, but we came back. You can't even win by your own rules. I've touched too many lives for people to forget me."

"Who? A brokendown café owner and a bitter prosecutor? Ah. You truly believe love will win the day. How delightful. There is no love. There is only control. The man is a coward, and the woman would have betrayed you the moment it suited her purposes."

The voice in his head sounded disturbingly like Shido. _He's right, you know. You've only ever been valuable because you are useful. Dad walked out on you. Mom threw you away. The rest of the city doesn't even believe that you exist. It's only a matter of time before Sae and Sojiro abandon you too._

"You're wrong." Morgana's fur was matted with blood, but he stood. "There is more to life. You talk about the desires of mortals? Well, hope is a desire too! As long as there's one person who overcomes the darkness of their own heart, one person who dreams of having more, we will be there. And we will take the world!"

Shouts echoed from the streets below. Akira shouldn't have been able to hear anything that far away, but the voices were as clear as if they had been standing next to him. "Come on guys! The Phantom Thieves haven't given up yet. What do you think they've been fighting for all this time? Open your eyes and see the truth! Can you hear me, Phantom Thieves?"

"I've got high hopes for you guys. You can't give up now."

"You are the future of this country. Keep fighting! Go!"

"You've stolen too many hearts. I won't let you quit!"

Sojiro laughed almost despite himself. "Hey, it's you guys who told me not to give up. You better not stop now."

Sae's voice was rough with tears. "I'm counting on you. I believe in you to the very end. I...love you."

 _She loves me. She loves me!_ "You hear that, tin-hat? They don't want you." Around him, the others pulled themselves to their feet. "We are going to end you in whatever form you take." Pain fled and blood dried as Akira stood erect. "And I know who I am."

"And who are you, mortal, to think you can stand against God?"

"Again with the blasphemy. But you know what? I think I can work with that." Arsene hovered before him, bound in chains. But there was no need for chains, no need to hide. There never had been. He was loved in all his weakness and ordinariness. "If you're God, then I insist on being the devil."

He broke the chains. "Satanael!"

 _This is not over._ Yaldabaoth's voice echoed in his mind. _I will crush your hope. I will crush your love for her._

 _Evening_

Snow crunched under Sae's feet, and flakes kissed her cheeks. A white Christmas? Once, she would have found the idea unbearably sentimental, but now it filled her heart to the brim. Shibuya teemed with life. People rushed to and fro, buying last-minute presents for their significant others, seemingly having already forgotten how many of them had been erased from existence just a few hours before. Well, almost forgotten.

"I can't believe I wanted Shido to be Prime Minister. Guy has way too many scandals. I hope the prosecutors office takes a long look at him."

No wonder she had received a panicked call that Handa had resigned and could she please come into work at her earliest convenience? She would have free rein in the Shido case within the bounds of the law. But right now, work could wait just a few minutes.

Akira stood in the square where Yoshida had given so many of his speeches. The breeze ruffled his hair, and he stared in wonder at the snowflakes. He stood perfectly straight and wasn't wearing his glasses. Magnificent. And hers at last, without anything to threaten them. "You know, I wouldn't expect the savior of the world to be alone on Christmas Eve."

"The saviors of the world are right here." He made a gesture to encompass the pedestrians going about their business. "It's your faith that gave me the power to defeat Yaldabaoth. Thank you for believing in me. Not just today, but every time." He turned to her and flashed her a small, hesitant smile. "I love you too, by the way."

He had heard that, had he? Her whisper in the dark, when her fear of losing him had finally driven out all lesser terrors. Of course he had, her darling professor and thief. She smiled back at him. They, the champions of justice who had endured so much defamation, betrayal, and death loved and were loved in return. It was enough to make even a cynical prosecutor believe in fairy tales. She chuckled. "Morgana would be so proud of us."

His smile fell, and he didn't quite meet her eyes. "Morgana is gone. He...had to go back to wherever it is that beings born from the collective unconscious go now that there isn't a Metaverse. He wasn't a human after all."

"Oh Akira," she whispered. Couldn't he have one victory that was untainted by grief? She had only had the one evening speaking with Morgana, but he had been kind and chivalrous, more human than most of the people she worked with. And Akira loved—had loved—him. She crossed the distance and enfolded him in her arms.

He pulled back. "Don't. You'll cause a scandal." And people were glancing at them, visibly shocked at the public physical contact.

"When have you ever cared about scandal?" If you couldn't hug your boyfriend on Christmas Eve after he had saved all of reality and lost his best friend, when could you? She pulled him close. _I'm here. Lean on me. I'm not going anywhere._

Akira inhaled and pulled back, running his hands along her arms until he was holding her hands in his. "Morgana wouldn't want us to be sad. We won. We're supposed to be celebrating. I believe you promised me a rather elaborate Christmas gift and an evening at the planetarium." He laughed, small but deep and genuine. "You're going to have to let me pick where we go for Valentine's Day."

"Deal." She caressed his cheek and wished she could kiss him. Soon. "I've been recalled to work, and there's apparently something urgent I have to deal with, but after that…" She wondered if the thrill of watching his cheeks pink would ever get old.

The air was thick with...something as Sae entered the office. Young prosecutors from the homicide and arson divisions talked in low voices. Well, Handa's resignation and the beginning of the case against Shido were bound to set tongues wagging. They fell silent when they saw her. Now that was odd. She didn't know that she had spoken ten words to either of them. "Gentlemen?"

The one on the left continued to stare at her, but the one on the right had the good sense to bow. "Ms Niijima! What's going on? You were on leave and now you're not and the SIU has resigned and people are saying that Shido is going to be prosecuted and Diet members are resigning and there may or may not be a new election and..."

"Slow down. I certainly hope to bring a case against Shido and his confederates, and, on a personal level, I certainly hope that there is a new election and that we can finally purge the nationalist streak from this country." Her brain processed the rest of the rambling spiel. "The SIU has resigned? You mean Handa has resigned, right?"

The two prosecutors looked at each other. "No, ma'am. I need that the entire Special Investigation Unit has resigned, except for you. The Minister of Justice—well, the former Minister of Justice—is waiting for you in the director's office."

The entire department? She had known Shido's influence was far-reaching, but if the rot went this deep, then it was more than just corruption. It was a crisis. She couldn't bring down every corrupt public servant by herself. She took the stairs two at a time to the director's office.

She had only met Chiyo Hiratsuka a handful of times. She was a tall woman, even taller than Sae, and so thin that she looked almost emaciated. She was also the highest-ranking woman in the previous Cabinet, and a woman who it was whispered could crush her enemies with a glare. She was not glaring now, but looking at Sae the same way Sae imagined Akira looked at a spectrograph. "Ms. Niijima," she said. "I suppose I should congratulate you on being one of the few honest prosecutors in Tokyo."

Sae bowed. "I did nothing more than my duty."

"And created a great deal of chaos. I'll be blunt: this is a crisis of legitimacy like Japan has never seen. Half the country is calling for a new election and half is screaming that it would be taking away their right to vote. To have the prosecutors office implicated in this to such a degree destroys the legitimacy of the institutions of justice."

"I would say the corruption itself is what destroyed the legitimacy."

"Yes, well, it's vital that this department regain the trust of the people, for the sake of stability. I understand you were busy making a case against Masayoshi Shido and that the previous director hampered you?"

"Yes, because he was Shido's man. As was his predecessor."

"Ah, yes. The one Shido had murdered because he knew too much. Shido ordered your father's death as well."

Sae's eyes went wide, and the power of speech deserted her entirely. If Hiratsuka knew about the murders, then she knew about the Metaverse.

"Oh, don't stand there gaping like a child. Shido has been very talkative in the hospital. He frightens the orderlies. And the higher echelons of the government are in contact with certain organizations tasked with dealing with...unusual phenomena. Shido was not the first, nor will he be the last. I'll give you the contact information of a Ryotaro Dojima in Inaba, if you're uncertain how to proceed with pressing the murder charges without causing a general panic."

Her brain reasserted itself. No, there would be no murder charges. She would not betray the living for the sake of the dead. "I've assembled extensive evidence of bribery, corruption, and other crimes that will ensure that Shido and his confederates serve long prison sentences. No one needs to know about the murders."

Hiratsuka was silent for a long moment. "You developed a reputation in the last month for pursuing justice at any cost. I understand you and your father were close before his death. What could have happened that you would do such a shameful thing as let his murder go unpunished?"

Sae flinched. "I simply believe as you do. There is no need to cause a panic." _Forgive me, Dad._

"I see. There were those rumors that you had ties to the Phantom Thieves." She steepled her fingers. "Who is it? Your sister? Some young man you're hiding from us?"

The ground shifted beneath Sae's feet and she collapsed into the nearest chair. Rumors she could handle. Rumors always surrounded those who were successful while bucking the norms of society. But for Hiratsuka to guess the truth so casually... A prosecutor known to have worked with vigilantes was finished, and there would be no one left to protect them. "If you know about Shadows, then you should know that the Phantom Thieves saved the world today. A murder charge would harm innocent people that I would prefer not to harm." She managed to keep her voice professional. Somehow.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Ms. Niijima. You have heard rumors of a new election? Mere corruption wouldn't shock the country enough to demand one. But even the whispers of murder...well, that is another matter entirely." Her eyes glittered. "I would like to have my job back."

"I will not sacrifice innocent lives to political expediency!"

Now she was giving Sae that legendary glare. Her voice was like a knife. "Don't be naïve, Niijima. This is bigger than a handful of children. Do I need to quote the UFP platform to you: the rejection of our no-war principal, changes in citizenship law that will marginalize ethnic minorities, saying that women like you and I 'should voluntarily leave the workforce because they can best support Japan by birthing and raising the next generation?'" High spots of color appeared on her cheeks. "These barbarians must fall, therefore Shido must fall, therefore the Phantom Thieves must fall. Do I make myself clear?"

Sae raked her hands through her hair. The choice couldn't be that stark, could it? This was the one thing she had wanted, the one promise she had made to Akira and the others: that she would keep them safe. They were heroes who deserved the highest medals that the country had to offer. Prosecuting them would be a betrayal, just like Akechi had betrayed them. Betrayed Akira.

Akira. She knew exactly what would happen to him if he were revealed as a Phantom Thief. Sent to juvenile hall to serve out his year-long sentence for assault. Placed in solitary confinement "for his own protection." His criminal record was supposed to vanish when he came of age, but it would persist in whispers and jobs denied because he didn't fit the culture of the organization. He could forget about going to a national university or working for JAXA. And she was the one who had reawakened his dreams in the first place. "Find someone else to do your dirty work."

"I will, but things will persist as they always have. The people you love will be going to prison either way, make no mistake, but there is a chance for good to come from this. As you may have noticed, you are currently the most senior member of this department. News of the resignations will be hitting the papers in a matter of hours. A young, beautiful, incorruptible prosecutor could be just what's required to restore public confidence in this office. You're de facto director at the moment. When the LCPP regains power, I'd have power to override the bureaucracy and make it permanent."

She put a hand on Sae's shoulder. "You could change this department. Hire replacements, institute reforms that we who are beholden to voters cannot."

She could. Go after politicians, business leaders, leaders of the art world, and yakuza alike. Prove that there was one law for everyone. Extorting confessions and foraging evidence would no longer be tolerated. Police officers who brutalized suspects in custody would find themselves arrested instead. She could advocate for greater rights for defendants and improved access to counsel. She had promised Akira those things too. She would betray him one way or another. And either way he would go to prison. Him and Makoto. How could she arrest her own sister for saving the world?

Maybe she didn't have to. She had spoken to him so lightly of triage yesterday, as if she were the the adult who made big decisions where some suffered and some prospered, every day of the week. What an idiot she had been. There was no way to save everyone she loved, but she could save some by sacrificing one. "You don't need all the Thieves. Just the Phantom. Bringing down the leader will discredit the entire group. I wouldn't even need to formally charge him with anything. A public announcement of the arrest would be enough."

She caught her reflection in the window and imagined her eyes flashed yellow. Maybe she really was No-Heart Niijima.

Hiratsuka's smile was all sharp canines. "That would be quite sufficient, I think. You know, Niijima, I believe you have the makings of a fine political instinct." She swept out of the room as if she were already restored to the Cabinet.

The tears came hot and quick on Sae's face. It wasn't fair! It wasn't just that Akira had saved the world, although he had. He was good and kind and loved her for herself. And she...she had teetered on the edge of becoming a monster before, but she wasn't now. Surely they were entitled to a little happiness, to drink up what enjoyment they could until spring sent him away? She would break his heart the same way Akechi had. It was too much to ask of anyone.

 _Justice is never easy._

"I love him."

 _Then honor his ideals._

"I can't."

 _You can. You faced me down and transformed me. You were never as weak as we believed ourselves to be._

Sae stood. There were no good choices, but there were less bad ones. Maybe...maybe some other little girl who dreamed of becoming a prosecutor would find a way to make it a happy ending. She took out her phone. _I need to see you alone. It's urgent._ If she was going to break both their hearts, better to make it quick.

And to think she had almost believed in fairy tales.

 _Night_

There was no place lonelier and more forgotten than the Shujin gate once school had let out. Snow covered the spear points, making the place look almost welcoming. Akira shoved his hands into his pockets and resisted the urge to pace. _Urgent_ was never a good word to hear from your prosecutor girlfriend when you had already made a date for the night. Had Shido escaped? Had defeating Yaldabaoth undone the changes of heart? Something worse?

Sae approached. Her steps were leaden, and her skin was pale. It was her eyes, though, that put a knife through his heart. Ever since the interrogation, her eyes had always been burning with the fires of humor, intelligence, or passion of some kind or other. Now they were dull and lifeless. "What is it?" A horrible thought struck him. "Did something happen to Makoto?" He moved to embrace her.

She...she pulled away. "No." Her voice sounded like the digital assistant on his phone. "It's not Makoto."

"Then what is it?" He had screwed up. He had thrown away Satanael and something had happened and now he couldn't help her. "Sae, please. Why were you crying?"

"Don't worry about me. There's been a complication with the Shido case." Her gaze looked everywhere but at him and she hugged herself against the cold. "I need to make a murder charge. I need your testimony."

 _Testimony._ A great void opened up beneath him as the sights and sounds of Tokyo were replaced with a swirling blackness. Testimony meant admitting that he was the Phantom. Admitting he was the Phantom meant confessing he broke his probation. Breaking his probation meant juvenile hall. And that meant hell. He had thought he could do that, once, but it was easier to offer in a warm café surrounded by his friends when it was a hypothetical than on these cold lonely streets. "You promised," he whispered. "You promised."

"I know," she said in that same flat tone. It would be easier if she were raging or anything other than empty. "Without a murder charge, there won't be a new election, and the UFP will remain in power with or without Shido. The former Minister of Justice says that the only way to stop that is to disgrace the Phantom Thieves alongside Shido. It's the only way to restore confidence in the system."

"It's about saving face? You want me to go to prison so that the prosecutor' office doesn't look bad?"

 _See? This is how humanity repays you. You should have taken my offer._

"I want what we both want: for Shido to pay for his crimes, and I want to do that without all of your friends being hunted down." Her voice cracked, anger leaking through at last. "If it's only you, I can keep the system from consuming them too."

"So that's it then? A quick, acutarial calculation: my future in exchange for the system chugging along ever so smoothly? It's been what, an hour? Did you even try to think of another solution?" The void widened. "Unless you planned this?"

"That's not fair."

Some rational part of his brain knew that she was right, but it was drowned out by the howling winds. _I told you that she would discard you the moment it was convenient. You fool! You're no better than Akechi, so desperate for affection that you won't see what's in front of you._ "I won't be a human sacrifice."

She growled, and it sounded so much like the day she had threatened Sojiro that Akira looked around for the coffee beans. "You aren't listening. If you don't turn yourself in, everything we've worked for will be destroyed. This whole year will be for nothing! Is that what you want? To be an ungrateful, selfish child? Or did I just forget that you were only ever a little boy because I was too clouded by lust?"

A child. A little boy. A plaything for a frustrated professional. _Yes, that is all you ever were to her._

Sae's breath came in pants, and her eyes were wide. She stretched out her hand. "Please, Akira. I didn't mean-"

Akira scarcely heard her. "I will not lose the last thing I have for this ungrateful country. Japan can rot for all I care." He turned on his heel and walked away.

The darkness drove him towards Yongenjaya and Leblanc. If Sae had been even halfway truthful, it wouldn't be long until her masters came for him. He needed to get out of Tokyo tonight. Take the treasures of Mementos and hop on a train to somewhere. No, a plane. Somewhere beyond the reach of prefectural police. Brazil had a lot of Japanese people, right? He just needed to get the money and go. Thank God Sojiro was home with Futaba.

"Yes, thank God," said Akechi's voice as the smell of acrid smoke filled the air, "that Sakura will not see you turn your back on everything you stood for."

Akira rubbed his eyes. Alechi sat at his usual stool, his face unblemished, wearing that ridiculous sweater vest. He rubbed his eyes again. Akechi was still there. He smelled like smoke. "How?" he whispered.

"You believe in purgatory, do you not?" he asked in that smug tone Akira had hated before he had learned that it was a defense mechanism. "That is close enough for our purposes, and a far better fate than I deserve. Or perhaps this is your subconscious talking. It hardly matters." He smiled sadly. "I hardly matter. The important thing is that bitterness doesn't consume your heart as it did mine."

"Can you blame me for being bitter? I lost Morgana and now Sae wants to put me in jail—which she swore up and down she wouldn't have to do—so her boss can look good and people can go on pretending everything is just fine."

"Is that why? Or could it be that she's telling the truth when she says it's the only way she can think of to protect the others?"

Akira narrowed his eyes. Thinking made his head hurt; recalling the conservation was like wandering through fog. Yes, Sae had said something about his friends. That...that that they would all go to jail in revenge for making those in power look bad, but that she could stop it if the Phantom turned himself in. Maybe? It was so hard to remember.

 _A cruel trick. She called you a child. She was using you from the beginning. You were only ever an amusement, and now she's thrown your away because she doesn't need you anymore. Just like your parents._

Akechi put a hand on his shoulder. "She thinks you are magnificent even without your powers. You believed her when she said she loved you this morning. Don't you remember?"

Yes. Yes Some of the fog evaporated. Sae had whispered an "I love you" that he had wanted to believe so badly that it had given him the strength to turn Arsene into Satanael.

 _But not power enough to save you from your fate._ "I've already watched my best friend go away. Haven't I done enough?"

"No, because those who could break Japan are still in power. Sometimes martyrdom is not just heroic. It's the only moral act." His expression turned faraway. "And sometimes we must offer our lives to even begin to atone. But not you. You're so much more than I ever was. Do you really think your friends will stop loving you if you give yourself up to save them? Do you really think Sae will? And didn't you tell me that love was what truly mattered?"

 _There will be no love for you on this path. Your friends will forget you, slowly at first, but solitary confinement is a kind of death. Sae will find someone her own age who will give her everything you never could. Someone who won't yell at her because he is a child._

"Would you stop listening to that pathetic excuse for a god? He's just another corrupt authority who can't accept when he's lost." Real frustration crept into Akechi's voice. "I can show you the truth, if you'll let me."

Truth? Yes, there was something not right about all this. If only he could think straight. "Please?"

Akechi snapped his fingers and they were somewhere else: an upscale apartment with minimalist furniture, all black, purple, and cream. A box from Tanaka's stood on the table next to a vase of edelweiss. "Sae."

Akechi gestured to the box. "Open it."

Inside was a spotting scope. A really nice spotting scope that he could take with him on road trips. Twice the aperture of the model he used at home. With an attachment for a camera and all the lenses and filters that he could've asked for. "Damn it," he whispered. "Don't you know that you're supposed to get your boyfriend mittens or something?" There was a card with it, penned in a neat, spare hand. _Merry Christmas, my darling professor._

Tears blurred Akira's vision. Sae loved him. She had loved him this morning, and he had believed her. She loved him now, or had before he had shot his mouth off. It was the system that was to blame. A little more of the fog faded away.

There was something almost like panic in Yaldabaoth's voice. _The system? The system that is rotten to the core? Go ahead and sacrifice yourself and watch as nothing changes and you get no reward!_

"I used to believe that," Akechi whispered. "You taught me another way. Let me return the favor. There is no glowing battlefield, but this is a war. All the real battles are fought in the quiet when nobody's watching, one heart at a time. It's something your battle in the casino taught you: no one can save another person's heart for them. You have to silence this monster who used us both."

Yes. He did. The world went very still and quiet. There would never be a happy ending for him, but this wasn't about that. It was about Okumura bleeding from the eyes as he gasped his last. It was about defeating a party that enriched itself on the backs of the marginalized. "I am Joker, the Phantom Thief of Hearts, and I will do whatever it takes to see justice done. Now shut up!"

There was no bullet this time, no light show, just calm. He and Akechi looked at each other."I...think he's gone. For good." He buried his face in his hands. "I was a complete and utter jackass. I'm going to have to go to confession again, aren't I?"

"That would be appropriate, but you might want to begin by apologizing to the human you offended." Akechi fidgeted. "I'm not sure I ever told you, but I'm glad you were my friend."

"Likewise."

Akechi swallowed. "Then I think it's time for both of us to return to our proper worlds. Good luck, my friend. Your happy ending may not be as out of reach as it seems." He shimmered, his outline becoming blurred. "Tell Makoto and Sae that I am truly sorry."

The next thing Akira knew, he was back at Leblanc, clutching the sack of valuables like an idiot. What had just happened? Miracle or hallucination or both? He hoped, in a way, that it had been real, and that Akechi had just gotten a lot of time taken off purgatory. But Akira's duty right now was to a living woman that he had hurt very badly.

The prosecutors office was almost deserted at this hour with a only lone guard to look him up and down. "Name and business here?"

"Akira Kurusu. I'm here to see Sae Niijima." He could do this. "It's about the Phantom Thieves."

"Please tell me there will finally be a break in the case. I'm sick of hearing about it." He patted Akira down. "She's using the SIU director's office. Up the stairs and to your right."

The director's office was even more luxurious than Akira had imagined. And, standing at the picture window as if she had always belonged there was Sae. He cleared his throat and tried not to notice the cold sweat on his palms. "Sae?"

Sae stiffened and turned. Her mouth was an almost-perfect 'o' as she blinked at him. Well, as long as she was dumbstruck, she couldn't throw him out the window like he deserved. He took a half step forward. "I was a complete and utter jerk to you for no real reason other than that I'm apparently a coward deep down. I won't to ask you to forgive me because I don't deserve it. But I want you to know that I'm sorry."

He swallowed down the last of the terror. "Madam prosecutor, I want to make a deal with you. In exchange for your solemn assurances that Masayoshi Shido will be brought to justice for his crimes, that the party he founded will no longer have a hand in government, and that my associates will be granted immunity, I will surrender myself into your custody. Effective immediately."

Sae kept staring for a long moment, but then she shook her head. "No, Mr. Kurusu. That is not an acceptable deal."

"What?"

"It would take at least an hour for me to process the paperwork." The light returned to her eyes. "And you see, I've already made plans with my boyfriend. Something about a planetarium. You'll have to turn yourself in in the morning after Mass instead."

"What?" Akira repeated. He understood the words, but that made no sense. "After what I said?"

"I've said worse. And I handled this in the worst possible way. I'm sorry I called you a little boy. Please forgive me. You've been more an adult these last six months than I have." She sniffed, her words clumsy. "I...love you."

Akira dashed forward to take her his arms and kiss her, quick frantic bites and long slow traces of the tongue. He tasted tears on her cheeks. His mouth and hands wandered her body. He needed to memorize every line and crevice so he wouldn't forget. Her eyelids fluttered closed as he kissed them, and she gasped when he nibbled under her ear. "I love you too," he whispered against her skin. "I'll come back. Someday."

She pulled back. Her hair was a mess, and her face was red, even though her expression was as solemn as it had been after the interrogation. "No," she whispered. "I'll bring you back. This isn't the end, I swear."

"I believe you." And, to Akira's astonishment, he did. He would face down police officers and judges and solitary confinement. He would endure because that endurance would bring life to so many. Then those he loved would save him just like they had today. He would find a future, just like he had found a family.

All that was tomorrow. He offered Sae his arm. "Shall we? Together they walked into the snowy Tokyo night, one of thousands of young couples grateful to be alive and in love.


	15. Chapter 15

_December 27_

Shido didn't look like a murderer. He didn't look like anything. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes dull and lifeless without the glasses to hide behind. Just like every other target—save two—of the Phantom Thieves. Sae took the seat opposite him. It really shouldn't have been her handling this, but when nearly a quarter of the entire prosecutors office was compromised, you had to make certain adjustments to judicial ethics. So she was here in this interrogation room for the second time in as many months. "Shido."

"Ms. Niijima." His voice quavered. "I did an unforgivable thing in ordering your father's death. Please, I ask you to punish me to the fullest extent of the law. The death penalty is not too high a price."

How many times had she pictured hearing those words? But here in this place, she felt no triumph. No confession would bring life to Dad's ashes. It felt more like having her apartment fumigated: a necessary removal of pestilence. "I'm not here about my father. Not today. I want to know about this conspiracy of yours and how deep it went." She leaned forward in her chair. "Tell me everything."

He did. By the time Sae left the interrogation room that afternoon, he had implicated three quarters of both houses of the Diet, sixteen members of _kazou_ families, and the head of the largest IT company in Japan in everything from murder to money laundering to drug running. Hiratsuka was going to get more than a new election, she was going to get the entire social order being twisted inside-out.

She returned to the director's office, where a stack of papers awaited her. Requests for interviews, resumes from young prosecutors who saw this as their one chance to move up the ladder, a dozen ordinary prosecutions that someone needed to sign off on. It might not have been her name on the nameplate yet, but she was the Director of the Special Investigation Unit. And to think she would have been satisfied with a mere promotion a year ago.

Fighting for justice and about to receive a very large raise. So why didn't it feel better? She tackled each item on her to do list with the same thoroughness as always, but there was always a tally in the back of her mind. Each paper pushed aside brought her one step closer to home. It wasn't that her position had come at the cost of Akira, or not just that. Punishing the guilty had become a slog.

Was that why Akira had to quit? Not just his guilt? He said it had felt better to help her and Futaba, to put some good in the world. And prosecutors, by their very nature, focused on removing evil. She was still trying to figure out what the mundane equivalent of giving her Shadow a nice long lecture was supposed to be.

She reached the bottom of her pile for the day. There was one good thing she could do. Akira was in a holding facility pending transfer to a juvenile detention center outside the city. Visitors and letters strictly prohibited—but the director of the SIU was permitted certain liberties. He was, after all, a key witness in her most prominent case. She took out a pen and paper. _Dear Mr. Kurusu, I want you to know that your friends are well, and they send their love. Makoto is very angry that you left without telling them, as is your guardian._ That was an understatement. The Phantom Thieves and Sojiro had spent twenty minutes—each—yelling at her, and Sojiro had threatened to ban her from Leblanc. He'd only relented after Futaba had reminded him that it was Akira who had made the choice.

She wrote of her de facto promotion, Makoto's last minute exam preparations, Yusuke winning yet another competition, anything she could think of. Sae hoped Akira understood the real message behind the inanities. _You are not forgotten. You are not abandoned. You are loved._

It was dark by the time Sae finished her work. She was half way to the station when she heard the small, irritated voice. "Come on, there's got to be something in here."

Sae looked. There was nothing there but a dumpster. She peered and saw a dark shape moving on top of the garbage. One of Tokyo's many strays. Except that she was quite certain she had heard a voice. _No, it can't be. The Metaverse is gone. He's gone._ But her heart hammered as she went to take a closer look. "Morgana?"

It was. He was absolutely filthy and a little thinner than the last time she had seen him on four legs, but she would know those white markings anywhere. He looked up at her with wide terrified eyes. "Ms. Niijima? Of all the—I mean I am most certainly not Morgana. I am an ordinary cat! Meow."

"Oh, come here, you little beast." She plucked him out of the garbage. He smelled like a dozen things Sae wasn't sure she wanted to know about, but it didn't matter. Akira's dearest friend was supposed to be gone, but now he wasn't. "How?"

He stilled. "I'm not really sure. I woke up here yesterday. I think...I think my friends' cognition made a space for me in this world. They must think I belong here too."

"Of course they do. They love you." Makoto had cried almost as hard for Morgana as she had Akira. It was like having two funerals and no bodies. "I'm going to take you home and give you a bath. Makoto will be overjoyed to see you. We can go to Leblanc tomorrow to tell the others."

He squirmed in her grip. "No I can't. I gave them this big speech before I disappeared. It'll completely ruin it if I just pop back up like nothing happened. I'll wait till Akira gets free and then I'll show up. Far more dramatic that way!"

Sae stared at him. "That's the most ridiculous, melodramatic thing I've ever heard. Your friends miss you right now. It'll be an entire year before Akira is set free. Do you want to die of some disease or starve?"

"You're ruining my stray cat aesthetic here. And Akira won't be in jail for an entire year. "

"Do you know something about the justice system that I don't?"

"No." He softened. "But I do know that you and he have been through too much not get your happy ending."

Oh. No wonder Akira loved him so much. "You are coming home with me, I am giving you a bath, and then we are going to tell all your friends that you are alive."

"You can't make me." But there was no heat behind his words.

"I'm bigger than you. I can make you do a lot of things, cat." She scratched him under the chin and smiled. "There's fatty tuna in it for you."

"You are a hard-driving prosecutor, Ms. Niijima. Deal."

It was nearly midnight by the time she got home, but Makoto was still surrounded by textbooks and cram guides. Once, Sae would have been delighted at her sister's diligence and preparation for the real world, but now the sight brought a lump to her throat. They were both coping with Akira's absence through work. "Sis? I left you some tuna on the stove. Just..." Makoto looked up and her voice died away. She opened her mouth and closed it again. "Morgana? she whispered and smiled for the first time in three days.

Then they were all crying, and Morgana jumped out of Sae's grasp and into Makoto's lap, and Sae didn't even mind that there was filthy cat hair all over the Italian leather.

Later, Sae and Makoto watched as a clean and fluffy Morgana ate tuna from a makeshift food dish. Sae put an arm around her sister. "You know, I always wanted a cat."

"He does fit in. Not as well as at Leblanc, but I think it'll do for now." She wiped her eyes. "I can't believe he's back. Akira would be so happy."

"Will be so happy." If the avatar of human hope could go from not even in this world to eating tuna in her kitchen within seventy-two hours, maybe Sae needed to expand her definition of the possible yet again. "Get some sleep. I promised Akira that I would find a way to bring him home, and I'm going to need the best strategist in Tokyo to help me figure out how to do that."

"Not just me. The best thieves that ever were."

Together they would do what Sae had told Akira couldn't be done: steal a happy ending. She took a pen and another sheet of paper from her purse. _Dear Mr Kurusu, I seem to have taken custody of your cat..._

 _January 5_

Morgana's tail flicked back and forth as he surveyed the assembled prosecutors. "They all look so young."

They did. She couldn't run an entire department by herself, and these four men and four women staring at her and her cat were the solution. Some of them had been poached from other departments where their less-than-spotless record had made them undesirable and some were fresh from their legal internship. All of them had a record of diligence and almost painful integrity and none of them had ties to Shido or the UFP. None of them minded that their new boss now took her cat to work with her every day.

She cleared her throat. "I'm honored to be working with each of you. Japan needs this department more than ever, and it needs a department that it can trust to execute real justice and not the whims of the powerful. I expect you to conduct your work prudently and with intelligence, but more than that, I expect integrity. If you believe the police may have coerced a confession, come to me and we will begin making a case against the officer in question. And if you even so much as think about forging evidence to secure a conviction, I will prosecute you myself. Do I make myself clear?"

They nodded slowly, and Sae hoped they did understand. She would not waste the chance at reform Akira had given her.

One of the women remained behind. She was the youngest of the new prosecutors, the ink barely dry on her law license. Her gaze kept darting around, as if she only had a few minutes to memorize everything. Sae smiled to herself. "I remember my first day here. I thought I would get lost."

She snapped to her feet and bowed. "I'm sorry! I'll endeavor to be more attentive in the future."

"Easy. Contrary to the rumors swirling around the water cooler, I don't actually eat people for breakfast. I expect the best, but you are allowed to have feelings."

"I'm sorry." She shook her head. "I must stop apologizing. It's only that I worked very hard to get here, and I'd hate to make a poor impression on my first day." She sighed. "My mother still thinks I should just find a man and get married."

 _Are we doomed to fight the same battles over and over, year after year? At least Dad was supportive._ "Your test scores and performance during the internship certainly suggest you belong here. Don't listen to your mother." Someday, a woman who wanted to be an attorney wouldn't be considered a traitor. Time would do its work as more and more women continued working after they married and had children. Until then, they needed all the help they could get. "Would you like to take your lunch in my office? There's a police brutality complaint that I'm too close to that I'd like you to take a look at."

"I—oh, yes ma'am!"

Sometimes you had to change the world one person at a time.

 _January 9_

"Given the extraordinary doubt cast on the results of the last election, the Supreme Court has declared the results null and ordered a new election be held in one month's time. Early polling suggests that the United Future Party, once led by the now-disgraced Masayoshi Shido, will lose as much as ninety-five percent of its seats in the House of Representatives."

Morgana nuzzled Sae's legs. "He would be so proud of you."

Sae didn't feel proud. She wondered if she ever would.

 _January 14_

It has started as lunch with one junior prosecutor and blossomed into an evening at Crossroads with five prosecutors, a tax attorney, a patent specialist, and a defense attorney. All of them were women. If society despised them so much, they would look out for each other, all other loyalties be damned.

The tax attorney took a look around the bar. "I miss the teenager Lala had working here for a while. He was really cute. Well, he was!"

"He was the Phantom!" The defense attorney glared at Sae and the other prosecutors. "Don't you guys have anything better to do than arrest kids?"

"It was not an easy decision." Sae swirled her drink. Here in this place of misfits where her romance with Akira had truly begun and surrounded by other women who had chosen the same path she had, she was safe. "No. It's worse than that. He was innocent of the charge that landed him on probation in the first place. An innocent boy is in juvenile hall."

"Niijima!"

"What? You don't think we win ninety-nine cases out of a hundred just because we're prudent, do you? I shudder to think how many innocent men and women are suffering as we speak."

"Careful, Niijima." The defense attorney took a long drink. "You're starting to sound like me."

"She's right." The patent specialist was a little older than the rest of them, with soft features and a perpetually harried expression that couldn't quite be put down to a demanding job. "He saved my life, you know. My husband...he, well, you know how men can be when they get drunk. My daughter submitted his name to that website and, well, at least he didn't do anything when I finally left."

Silence. Nobody liked to talk about the domestic violence cases, but every few months a young prosecutor was pulled from what was considered more pressing work to deal with what happened when a woman ending her marriage went wrong. It was moments like this, looking at the patent specialist's unscarred face, that Sae felt the injustice of what she had done most keenly. "You should write a letter. My sister went to school with him, and they were friends. She's collecting signatures."

"Niijima, you're subverting public trust in the office."

"No," the defense attorney said. "I think she's increasing it. And she's right. There's no sweeter feeling than watching an innocent man go free."

"So wait," one of the other prosecutors asked. "Your job doesn't make you feel miserable? But you lose all the time."

A new round of drinks arrived and Sae took a sip of whiskey. "It's not about our win-loss records. We serve justice. How would you like to help me get justice for Akira Kurusu?"

 _January 20_

"We, the undersigned, believe they miscarriage of justice occurred in the case of Akira Kurusu and urge his immediate exoneration and release," Hiratsuka read. "The Tokyo Women's Bar Association. Who the hell are the Tokyo Women's Bar Association? Why wasn't I invited to join? And are there prosecutors' names on the list? Including yours? You arrested him in the first place!"

"On your advisement, if you recall. I, of course, had no idea that there was credible evidence that the underlying assault charge was spurious. Now that I know, justice demands I advocate for his release." She smiled. Makoto and her friends had turned Akira's imprisonment into a cause célèbre. Every day there was some new protest, petition, or letter to the editor. A prosecutor speaking out wouldn't even be considered unusual. "A friendly piece of advice. It appears you have miscalculated as to what exactly inspires the public trust. I would hate for you to lose your seat altogether and have no chance to return to the Cabinet."

Hiratsuka groaned.

 _January 28_

Sae leaned back, and Morgana snuggled into her lap as the train raced toward her office. It wasn't a bad life she had now, all things considered. Paying the pet fare, mentoring young women, reforming the justice system bit by bit, watching as Makoto passed her entrance exams with flying colors. Entrance exams. Akira should be preparing for his. He should be waiting for her at Leblanc. He should be in her arms this evening. She stroked Morgana slowly and gently. "I miss him so much."

"Me too," Morgana whispered.

"That's a beautiful cat you have there," said the passenger next to her. She was a small, round-shouldered woman who couldn't have been more than forty, but already had deep lines etched on her face. Her gray eyes were tired, but the shade was the exact same as Akira's. Sae wondered when the knife in her heart would stop twisting. "My son wanted a cat, but I never could afford it. Now he's gone. I should have found the money. I should have done a lot of things."

"I'm sorry."

"No, I apologize for intruding on you. It's just that I haven't been able to speak of this for nearly a year." She noticed Sae's lapel badge. "You're a prosecutor? Maybe you can help my son? He's in jail for a probation violation, but I think he may have been innocent."

Sae sat up straighter, and Morgana's hair stood on end. Those gray eyes. It couldn't be. "Mrs. Kurusu?"

Her eyes went wide. "How to know my name? The only person could have possibly told you is—do you know Akira?"

 _I'm in love with your son. Sorry about that._ "We're friends."

"Then please, help me! I have to put this right!" She took a deep breath. "My apologies. It's been a very difficult year."

"It's been one for your son as well." This was the woman who had so scarred Akira? Sae had been expecting someone a bit more of the firebreathing dragon, but then Shido hadn't looked like a monster either.

"Before or after these rumors of Phantom Thieves? I always thought he would prefer Tokyo. He's such a smart boy, and none of us at home knew what to do with him, even before his father abandoned us and I had to endure the shame of filing for divorce. Then this happened, and I thought the best thing to do was send him away." She shook her head. "He's such a good boy. I should have known he wouldn't hit someone without reason."

"Why didn't you believe him?"

"Because it was easier not to. Someone wanted his case dealt with very quickly and forcefully, and I'm a divorced Christian woman of no means. You might as well stamp 'outcast' on my forehead to begin with." She looked down. "And perhaps because I wanted him gone on some level. I was going to be a doctor, you see. I let this charming boy with a bad but exciting reputation talk me into his bed. And I found myself pregnant with a child I didn't want and just enough scruples not to kill him. I married the father and found myself a pregnant housewife overnight." She laughed. "You know how that turned out. I hated Akira for ruining my life, even as I learned to love him. Not that it matters. He'll never forgive me."

Morgana glared. "She blames her son for what she did? That's pretty low."

Sae agreed. _Do you have any idea how mentally scarred Akira is? He thinks anyone and everyone who loves him will abandon him. It may not be the kind of thing I can bring to family court , but you and his father hurt him more than you can possibly know. You're right. He'll never forgive you. He was already planning how he could get away._

And yet.. _"All you do is eat away at my life."_ Prosecutors in glass casinos shouldn't throw stones. "Your son has thrived here. He saved Japan, and he found himself a group of loyal friends, including me. It's not for me to say whether you can ever repair your relationship. But apologizing to someone besides me would be a good first step. I can get you his contact information. And I promise my office is doing everything it can to bring him home, as are his other friends."

"That's good." Her gaze was far away. "Thriving, you said. Friends? I imagine he's still talking about going to the University of Tokyo. He fit in even less than I did at home. The town's dying. Nothing for a boy like him to do. And there will be so much gossip when he comes home." She looked at Sae. "Do you think, if he were to be released before the year is out, that it might be to his benefit for him to stay in Tokyo?"

"What?" she and Morgana asked at the same time.

"As I said, there would be a great deal of gossip. Even if those false charges bar him from a national university, he's bound to go somewhere. Akira will need better entrance exam preparation." Her lips twisted into something that was half smile and half grimace. "I want to make this right for him. Maybe leaving him where he's finally found a place to belong is a good beginning. And maybe I need a fresh start as well. Some place that doesn't know me as the medical student who got pregnant. Do you think that might work?"

Akira? Stay here, where she could see and talk to and touch him every day? It was almost too good to be true. Sae scraped a nail against her palm and didn't wake up. "I think it's worth a try." Her phone went off. "Excuse me."

Ohya. "You're not going to believe this, but the girl Shido assaulted? I found her."

It wasn't a bad life. Some days were positively miraculous. "I think Akira will be going to the University of Tokyo after all."

 _February 13_

The officer ushered Akira into the visiting room. He was so pale and thin. What were they feeding him? Bread and water? But his eyes were bright and he smiled at her. "Madam Prosecutor." The smile grew wider. "Or should I say Madam Director? I told you so."

Sae had thought she would cry seeing him again, but laughter seized her. They had won. They had faced down Shido, a false god, and their own broken hearts, but they had won. Sojiro was going to take him back to the café, and he was going to be there the next day and every day after that. She was going to have to buy Valentine's chocolates. Another day for lovers, except no one and nothing was going to take him away again. And that would be reward enough. "Long time no see, Professor. I have fantastic news for you..."

* * *

 _And that's a wrap! I'd originally planned to track canon much more closely here, but when I wrote the scene of Sae talking with the young prosecutor, I realized how badly other women in the office would need a mentor. Permit an author her indulgences?_

 _I want to think every single one of you for reading. I know that this is most people's NOTP, so it means a lot. It's the first OTP I've had in about six years, so you can definitely expect more from me. I have a one-shot done that's in this verse and is basically pure smut/fluff and another longfic in a different continuity set before the Casino that I don't want to say too much about because I'm still in the "panic about the bunny" stage._

 _See you next time!_


	16. Epilogue: Valentine's Day

_I've had crippling block for months and someone asked to see Saekira's Valentine's Day. Enjoy the brief, shameless fluff._

* * *

Akira inhaled sharply and luxuriated in the scent of coffee that permeated Leblanc. He was home. He kept himself sane in juvenile hall by dreaming of his return, pouring over Sae's letters as if they were star charts and reminding himself that the day would come when he would be reunited with those he loved. He just hadn't expected for it to be so soon or for his mother to ask him if he wanted to stay. It was a bigger reward than he deserved.

Morgana perched on the bar, watching as Akira made coffee. He'd come back too, and his fur was sleeker than ever. Akira had spent all of last night petting it."A lot of couples today."

"It's Valentine's Day."

"Is it?" Sojiro gave him a grin that suggested he hadn't forgotten what day it was for a moment and laid a hand on Akira's good shoulder. "Well, I know of at least one person who has plans. Guess I'll have to take Morgana off your hands for the evening."

"I don't know. Perhaps I should stay and chaperone. Make sure you and Sae don't get up to anything untoward."

Sae, not Ms. Niijima. Morgana must have really enjoyed his six weeks with her. A pleasant warmth spread over his cheeks, more affection than embarrassment. "We're just going to have a nice quiet evening here." With the woman he loved who he wasn't going to have to leave after all. "I'll be lucky to get Valentine's chocolates."

"Nice quiet evening, right. I was your age once, and I've seen how she looks at you. I'm going to be lucky to have the café in one piece when you and Niijima are done with it."

"Hello to you too, Sakura. "

Men and cat turned to find Sae standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. The twilight haloed her hair and softened her skin in the way the harsh lights of juvenile hall never could. She tried to twist her lips into a scowl, but her eyes crinkled. Akira's mouth went dry. Sae was the most brilliant prosecutor in Tokyo and the tireless reformer of the SIU. She was also the most beautiful woman in the world.

Sojiro cleared his throat. "I mean this place is practically falling apart. Really should call the contractor. Come on, Morgana. There's a new sushi place I want to try."

Morgana hopped down from the counter. "You better be entirely proper while I'm gone. This woman fed me the finest tuna I've ever had. As much as I love you, I'd hate to have to challenge you to a duel."

A strangled noise escaped from Sae's throat. "A...a duel?"

"Of course. What kind of gentleman thief would I be if I didn't defend a lady's honor, especially one that's been so kind to me?" He softened. "Seriously, enjoy yourselves tonight. You two have earned it."

"Yeah, kids. Enjoy your happy ending." The shopkeepers bell tinkled as Sojiro and Morgana left.

Akira had only ever seen lovers reunite in movies and animes. The music would swell as they rushed into each other's arms. There would be twirling. Sae had laughed yesterday when she had come to the juvenile hall, and he didn't think he could twirl her with his bad shoulder. But he could touch her now without glass or anything else getting in the way. He stepped forward and took her hand. Her skin was softer than he remembered and warm as a fire on this winter evening. Sae's breath was ragged as he twined their fingers together. And she was still solid at his touch. "Hi."

"Hello." Her gaze traveled to their joined hands and a small, nervous smile graced her lips. "I ran to the store last night for some chocolate. I hope you like it. I'm not really accustomed to this sort of thing and-" She shuddered. "You're here," she rasped. "You're really here."

Whatever strings that had kept him in place snapped. Hot tears landed on Akira's face as he crushed Sae to him. The warm softness of her hand was nothing compared to the feel of her pressing against him. He had forgotten so much of her during his time away. Her free hand roamed his body as they planted quick, desperate kisses on each other's faces. So much to remember. So much time to make up for. But they had all the time in the world. "I'm here."

Akira had no idea how long they stood kissing and touching and crying but eventually Sae pulled back to wipe her eyes. "Enough. It's Valentine's Day. I really did get you chocolate." She removed a small red box from her bag. "It's been a long time since I had to do this, and with all the running around I'm not sure if I got the right thing."

"If it's edible, it's right." Six weeks of prison food had left him starving. He lifted the lid and was rewarded with individually wrapped dark chocolates that made his mouth water just looking at them. He unwrapped one and nibbled. "It's a lot more than all right. I'm going to have a lot to live up to on White Day. "He smiled at her. "The gentleman gives the lady trip what he gave her. It's tradition. And I still have to pay you back for the telescope."

"The whole café's going to be stuffed with white chocolate, isn't it?"

"And edelweiss." He could see it now. He'd fill this place with flowers until the thought of casinos or prisons was just a memory. "Sit, and I'll make you some coffee."

"Nice quiet normal evening as promised?"

"Well, normal for us. And it's been six whole weeks since I've been here. Those letters of yours kept me sane, but I have so many questions. And I'm going to have to make up everything I missed at Shujin and figure out what I'm going to do about Mom and—is this what a happy ending looks like?"

"I think so." Sae kissed him. "I really think so."


End file.
